mailman does not send E-mails
Hello List,
Ok, new to the list, and probably not a good start, since it turns out that I am too stupid to search the list archives. If I go to the page
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
and click on "searchable archives", I get a "time-out" error...
So, I am probably asking a question that has been asked probably at least a hundred times in the past, and my apologies in advance, but I still need an answer somehow:
I tried to install mailman, and for all I can tell successfully since I did not get any error messages at any stage, but it still does not work. Unfortunately, there are only very few hints as to what the problem might be.
The best one is probably in mailman/logs/errors, where everytime I execute "./mailmanctl restart" it says:
Feb 26 14:00:39 2004 (24372) Warning: unable to setgroups([101, 101])
Assuming it refers to the $prefix directory, I can't however see why:
redwolf:/usr/local# ll | grep mailman drwxrwsr-x 20 mailman mailman 1024 Feb 25 14:44 mailman
Running mailman/bin/check_perms shows no problems either:
redwolf:/usr/local/mailman# bin/check_perms No problems found
Other log entries that seem to refer to the problem are in mailman/logs/smtp-failure:
Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) Low level smtp error: host not
found, msgid: None
Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) delivery to mailman-owner (at)
redwolf.org.uk failed with code -1: host not found
Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) Low level smtp error: host not
found, msgid:
(there are literally thousands of these entries, they are referring to test messages that I have sent to test lists)
However, if I "su mailman", I can mail no problems to any E-mail account locally or remote, including those that the error messages refer to, e.g. webmaster (at) brabetz.de, and I have tried quite a few. MTA is exim (in the log entry above, I have replaced the @ with (at) to make it at least a tiny bit harder for spammers to harvest my E-mail address).
Install is on a Debian system, but I did not use apt-get, but instead downloaded the source code and used "./configure ; make install". Mailman user is mailman, mailman group is mailman. mailman is a member of group mailman, and only the group mailman.
I have been through all FAQs and README files I could find for two days now, without finding even as much as a hint to what the problem might be, and have reached that stage where I would really appreciate *any* hint as to where to start looking for it.
Thank you in advance for any prospective advice!
Best wishes Thorsten
On Thu, 2004-02-26 at 09:36, Thorsten Brabetz wrote:
Hello List,
Ok, new to the list, and probably not a good start, since it turns out that I am too stupid to search the list archives. If I go to the page
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
and click on "searchable archives", I get a "time-out" error...
So, I am probably asking a question that has been asked probably at least a hundred times in the past, and my apologies in advance, but I still need an answer somehow:
I tried to install mailman, and for all I can tell successfully since I did not get any error messages at any stage, but it still does not work. Unfortunately, there are only very few hints as to what the problem might be.
The best one is probably in mailman/logs/errors, where everytime I execute "./mailmanctl restart" it says:
Feb 26 14:00:39 2004 (24372) Warning: unable to setgroups([101, 101])
Assuming it refers to the $prefix directory, I can't however see why:
redwolf:/usr/local# ll | grep mailman drwxrwsr-x 20 mailman mailman 1024 Feb 25 14:44 mailman
Running mailman/bin/check_perms shows no problems either:
redwolf:/usr/local/mailman# bin/check_perms No problems found
Other log entries that seem to refer to the problem are in mailman/logs/smtp-failure:
Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) Low level smtp error: host not found, msgid: None Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) delivery to mailman-owner (at) redwolf.org.uk failed with code -1: host not found Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) Low level smtp error: host not found, msgid:
Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) delivery to webmaster (at) brabetz.de failed with code -1: host not found Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) Low level smtp error: host not found, msgid: Feb 26 14:15:45 2004 (24376) delivery to webmaster (at) brabetz.de failed with code -1: host not found (there are literally thousands of these entries, they are referring to test messages that I have sent to test lists)
However, if I "su mailman", I can mail no problems to any E-mail account locally or remote, including those that the error messages refer to, e.g. webmaster (at) brabetz.de, and I have tried quite a few. MTA is exim (in the log entry above, I have replaced the @ with (at) to make it at least a tiny bit harder for spammers to harvest my E-mail address).
Install is on a Debian system, but I did not use apt-get, but instead downloaded the source code and used "./configure ; make install". Mailman user is mailman, mailman group is mailman. mailman is a member of group mailman, and only the group mailman.
I have been through all FAQs and README files I could find for two days now, without finding even as much as a hint to what the problem might be, and have reached that stage where I would really appreciate *any* hint as to where to start looking for it.
Thank you in advance for any prospective advice!
Best wishes
Thorsten
Sounds like you've done a great job of troubleshooting so far, so I'm sure you've looked here (or soon will): Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/
FAQ 3.14 covers a lot of ground in getting folks up and running, but it sounds like you've got a few problems that may not be covered in there.
What in particular are your settings in ~mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py (or Defaults.py) for the "Delivery Defaults": DELIVERY_MODULE = 'SMTPDirect' MTA = 'Manual' SMTPHOST = 'localhost' SMTPPORT = 0 # default from smtplib SENDMAIL_CMD = '/usr/lib/sendmail'
You might need to specify SMTPPORT = 25 or play with the SENDMAIL_CMD setting.
Also, is the mailman group number 101 on your system? If so, you may have problems with using SetGID on this system.
I'm not a regular Debian or Exim user so I can't give you any specifics, but I would look at those two areas, based on the errors you are getting.
Hope that is helpful - Jon Carnes
Hello Jon,
Thank you for your reply!
On Thursday 26 February 2004 15:42, you wrote:
What in particular are your settings in ~mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py (or Defaults.py) for the "Delivery Defaults": DELIVERY_MODULE = 'SMTPDirect' MTA = 'Manual' SMTPHOST = 'localhost' SMTPPORT = 0 # default from smtplib SENDMAIL_CMD = '/usr/lib/sendmail'
I finally found it, and while the problem was not in the above section of Defaults.py, your mail made me read that file one more time top to bottom, and it finally dawned on me what the problem was:
SMTPHOST was set to 'localhost', but localhost was not defined in /etc/hosts (don't ask me why, I did not setup this system, I am just responsible for it now; I have to admit that the idea that it might not be defined never even crossed my mind prior to your mail...); hence, the smtp error. Have now added
127.0.0.1 localhost
entry to /etc/hosts, now Mailman seems to be working perfectly!
Thanks again!
Best wishes Thorsten
On Thu, 2004-02-26 at 11:28, Thorsten Brabetz wrote:
Hello Jon,
Thank you for your reply!
On Thursday 26 February 2004 15:42, you wrote:
What in particular are your settings in ~mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py (or Defaults.py) for the "Delivery Defaults": DELIVERY_MODULE = 'SMTPDirect' MTA = 'Manual' SMTPHOST = 'localhost' SMTPPORT = 0 # default from smtplib SENDMAIL_CMD = '/usr/lib/sendmail'
I finally found it, and while the problem was not in the above section of Defaults.py, your mail made me read that file one more time top to bottom, and it finally dawned on me what the problem was:
SMTPHOST was set to 'localhost', but localhost was not defined in /etc/hosts (don't ask me why, I did not setup this system, I am just responsible for it now; I have to admit that the idea that it might not be defined never even crossed my mind prior to your mail...); hence, the smtp error. Have now added
127.0.0.1 localhost
entry to /etc/hosts, now Mailman seems to be working perfectly!
Thanks again!
Best wishes
Thorsten
Glad to be of help.
I'll make sure that item is covered FAQ 3.14. Take care - Jon Carnes
participants (2)
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Jon Carnes -
Thorsten Brabetz