Sendmail cannot start properly.

[Randy_34]

Hi,

Recently, i faced these problem. I get this in my /etc/rc.log,
------------------------------------------
start_msg... User unknown /dead.letter... cannot open: Permission denied
Output from "/sbin/rc2.d/S540sendmail start":
----------------------------
start... User unknown
/dead.letter... cannot open: Permission denied
"/sbin/rc2.d/S540sendmail start" FAILED
-------------------------------------------

If i start it from the shell,
sakura/#>/sbin/init.d/sendmail start
start... User unknown

It will stuck there. If i leave it there, i can still sendmail from another session.

Any idea ?

[T G Manikandan]

THe $HOME/dead.letter should have proper permissions

Make sure that the permission for

/dead.letter is okay.

[Jose Mosquera]

Hi,

Pls check /sbin/rc2.d/S540sendmail file ownership and permisions, thes must be:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 21 May 26 2002 S540sendmail -> /sbin/init.d/sendmail

Also certify these conditions to the file /sbin/init.d/sendmail, these must be:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 bin bin 3670 Apr 26 2000 /sbin/init.d/sendmail

And verify SENDMAIL_SERVER value in /etc/rc.config.d/mailservs file, for automatic start up in boot proccess must be 1.

Rgds.

[Birgit Federmann]

Hi,

in this case sendmail treats the "start" as a user to whom it tries to send a mail instead interpreting it as start message. Please check that the startup script and also sendmail binary have right permissions and ownerships

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 21 Jun 8 1996 /sbin/rc2.d/S540sendma
il -> /sbin/init.d/sendmail

-r-xr-xr-x 1 bin bin 3830 Jun 7 1996 /sbin/init.d/sendmail

-r-sr-sr-t 1 root mail 344064 Jun 7 1996 /usr/sbin/sendmail

The sizes may vary depending on the sendmail patch which is installed.

Regards,
Birgit

[Randy_34]

I login as a root. But i could not find the file /dead.letter . But i found a copy in /var/tmp/dead.letter. i have deleted it, but my sendmail still could not start properly from the shell. It is still indicating User unknown ,

#>/sbin/init.d/sendmail start
start... User unknown

[Jochen Heuer]

Hi Randy,

as Birgit wrote already, check the permissions of the sendmail binary. It should be suid / sgid root.mail ...

Jochen

[Randy_34]

Hi all,

ll /sbin/init.d/sendmail
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 18 Aug 28 13:29 /sbin/init.d/sendmail -/usr/sbin/sendmail

ll /usr/sbin/sendmail
-r-sr-sr-t 1 root mail 409600 Jan 14 13:19 /usr/sbin/sendmail

I notice that my /sbin/init.d/sendmail is just a link file only which is quite different from you guys.

My sendmail version is
#what /usr/sbin/sendmail |grep version version.c 8.8.6.1 (Berkeley) 6/14/97 (PHNE_17190)

Rgds,
Randy

[Birgit Federmann]

The startup skript should not be a link to the binary! You have to correct this.

Regards,
Birgit

[Jochen Heuer · Accepted solution]

Hi Randy,

remove the link and either copy /sbin/init.d/sendmail from another system or reinstall the patch or install more current sendmail patch. But remove the link /sbin/init.d/sendmail first!

Jochen

[Randy_34]

Hi Birgit ,

How should i correct it? Even if i start manually from the shell from the binary ,

#/usr/sbin/sendmail start
start... User unknown

It is still the same.

Rgds
Randy