postfix started but can't telnet.

waelaltaqi · 02-23-2007, 01:11 PM

i installed post fix and i modified the config file with the following settings:

Code:

myhostname = mailgw.domain.com
mydomain = domain.com
myorgin = $mydomain
inet_interfaces = all
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain 
mynetwork_style = host
relay_domains = somedomain.com

then i moved /etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail to another location. and i rebooted the server.
then :

Code:

root@mailgw:~# postfix start
postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system

to make sure that my service started i did:

Code:

root@mailgw:~# netstat -l
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 *:time                  *:*                     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 *:auth                  *:*                     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 *:ssh                   *:*                     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 *:smtp                  *:*                     LISTEN
udp        0      0 *:biff                  *:*
udp        0      0 *:time                  *:*

so my sever now listens to smtp port 25. now i'm trying to do telnet smtp testing:

Code:

telnet localhost 25 
Trying 172.28.2.251...
Connected to 172.28.2.251 (172.28.2.251).
Escape character is '^]'.

my problem is that telnet is not coming back with message 220 when i telnet and it doesn't come back with message 250 when i send HELO. i can telnet to 25 but i can't execute any of the smtp commands. do you have any idea what i'm doing wrong? there is no firewall installed on the machine

Berhanie · 02-23-2007, 06:16 PM

What does /var/log/maillog say? Also, make sure that you don't have any leftover sendmail binaries which might interfere with postfix.

billymayday · 02-23-2007, 06:44 PM

Is there a slackware utility for switching MTA - there is in RH type distros, and it changes quite few things around the system

Berhanie · 02-23-2007, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Is there a slackware utility for switching MTA

No, with Slackware it has to be done manually.

waelaltaqi · 02-24-2007, 10:08 PM

i'm working on slackware 11.0. before i installed postfix i did the following:

Code:

# mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF
# mv /usr/bin/newaliases /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF
# mv /usr/bin/mailq /usr/bin/mailq.OFF
# chmod 755 /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF \
    /usr/bin/mailq.OFF

that should have taken care of sendmail binaries? would sendmail be installed somewhere else? the commands above are copied off postfix official documentation and they were excuted successfully on my system so i assumed that sendmail is taken care off. i tried the same procedure on CentOS which worked just fine but i discarded CentOS because i couldn't install ClamAV Module so i decided to give slackware a shot http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=530440
now i would like to know why postfix is not working on my preferred distro

thanks

Berhanie · 02-24-2007, 10:32 PM

Code:

that should have taken care of sendmail binaries?

Yes. There's also the symlink /usr/lib/sendmail which you should point at the correct sendmail.

So, anyway, good job on moving the original sendmail out of the way. Now, what does maillog show?

waelaltaqi · 02-26-2007, 09:15 AM

thanks Berhanie for putting me on the right path. when i start postfix, /var/log/maillog has the following:

Code:

Feb 25 15:31:47 mailgw postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system
Feb 25 15:31:47 mailgw postfix/master[7913]: daemon started -- version 2.3.7, configuration /etc/postfix

when i try to telnet 25 to the server, /var/log/maillog will show the following:

Code:

Feb 25 15:31:47 mailgw postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system
Feb 25 15:31:47 mailgw postfix/master[7913]: daemon started -- version 2.3.7, configuration /etc/postfix
21 mailgw postfix/smtpd[7917]: fatal: open database /etc/aliases.db: No such file or directory
Feb 25 15:36:22 mailgw postfix/master[7913]: warning: process /usr/libexec/postfix/smtpd pid 7917 exit status 1
Feb 25 15:36:22 mailgw postfix/master[7913]: warning: /usr/libexec/postfix/smtpd: bad command starttup -- throttl

the smtpd service is starting and listening but when it tries to do anything it hangs up because of aliases.db ... i didn't find the source of the problem. i will do my homework and if you can help a little i will appreciate it. thanks.

waelaltaqi · 02-26-2007, 09:39 AM

after doing a little research, i sloved the problem:

Code:

rm -f aliases.db
mkdir /etc/aliases
newaliases
postfix reload

telnet after that started working fine and i could send test e-mail from the server. thanks Berhanie again for your valuable help.
Wael..

Berhanie · 02-26-2007, 07:29 PM

Hi, Wael.
Congratulations on finding the cause of the problem. newaliases is the command to run. It builds /etc/newaliases.db from the data in /etc/newaliases. (Doing a mkdir /etc/aliases doesn't make sense, though.)

waelaltaqi · 02-27-2007, 07:34 AM

acctually it created /etc/aliases.db not /etc/newaliases.db. i thought that i newliases is going to create the database under /etc/aliases/aliases.db ..that explains the mkdir part ... but it came out that i don't need it ... thanks again.

Berhanie · 02-27-2007, 06:08 PM

Yes, sorry. Typo.