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

[Jose Mosquera]

Have you installed a new version of sendmail?, Pls take note about new version have new capabilties and improves, for this if you are trying with old /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file some troubles will appear.

Rgds.

[Artyom Voronchihin]

Try to start sendmail manually from root account. Type the command:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -bd -q30m.
This command is invoking in starting sendmail's script (/sbin/init.d/sendmail). If sendmail started successfully check /sbin/init.d/sendmail for errors as it was described in above discussion. Symlink /sbin/rc2.d/S540sendmail must be linked to /sbin/init.d/sendmail and /sbin/init.d/sendmail is a _script_, NOT a link !

[Jochen Heuer]

Correct /sbin/init.d/sendmail by removing the link and doing one of the following three options:

- copying from other system
- reinstalling sendmail patch PHNE_17190
- install more current sendmail patch

/sbin/init.d/sendmail is usually a script which is run at startup with the option 'start'. Since on your system this is a direct link to /usr/sbin/sendmail at startup the sendmail *binary* is run with option start and therefore treats start us 'username'

[Jose Mosquera]

Be carefully with your current /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file, always keep a original copy in a safe place!!!

[T G Manikandan]

check this doc

http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000063200125

[Jochen Heuer]

Hi T G,

I don't think this will help since /sbin/init.d/sendmail is not a script but a link:

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

[T G Manikandan]

Similar post

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x945c7bb04b5cd611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

[Jochen Heuer]

Okay, but in *this* case it does not matter if you run

$ /sbin/init.d/sendmail start

or

$ /usr/sbin/sendmail start

since the first one is a symbolic link to the second one ....

Regards,

Jochen

[Steven E. Protter]

I got this very problem on a Linux server a ways back.

/etc/aliases file.

It needs specific users authorized pointing to unix accounts. I know there are better ways to do this, but this is how I did it.

inv@investmenttool.com: invester
inq@investmenttool.com: invester
webmast@investmenttool.com: invester


here is a script to build the hash databases.


#!/bin/sh

# A script designed to rebuild all relavent mail databases after a con
# change.
#
#

newaliases
cd /etc/mail
makemap -r -v hash access.db < access
makemap -r -v hash domaintable.db < domaintable
makemap -r -v hash genericstable.db < genericstable
makemap -r -v hash mailertable.db < mailertable
makemap -r -v hash virtusertable.db < virtusertable
cp /etc/sendmail.cf /root
m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/sendmail.cf

echo "You need to edit the sendmail.cf file for localhost et al"
sleep 3
vi /etc/sendmail.cf
/etc/init.d/sendmail restart

You need to update the Dj$w.... parameter if your mail server can't figure out your domain name from your hostname, at least on Linux.

I have lots more on this, having screwed everything up possible with this configuration.

Understand that to get mail onto aol's system, dns names must be validated, otherwise they reject the mail with a nasty message. It gets better, yahoo accepts the mail but won't deliver it.

Steve

[Randy_34]

Hi All,

Good morning !With all the inputs, I managed to solve my problem. The main issue is that /sbin/init.d/sendmail should be a script not a link. I copied these file from somewhere.
It may not be the correct version but i can be bear with it right now.

Thanks for all the good suggestions !

Rgds
Randy