Sendmail problems

[Steve Buchan_1]

Hey guru's,
Every time I use sendmail, I get the following errors:

bogus queue file, uid=176, gid=106, mode=100660
loosing ./big_file_name: bogus file uid/gid in mqueue

Also, when I check /var/adm/syslog/mail.log, there is this entry:

nameserver: hostname.domain.com: host name lookup failure

I can do an nslookup of the hostname no problem.

Any ideas whats going on here?

Thanks,

Steve

[benoit Bruckert]

Hi,
FOr the first trouble, you can check files in your mail queue and removed bad ones :
/var/spool/mqueue

For the second (syslog), may be you have an improper service switch file define in sendmail.cf,
check the line ServiceSwitchFile, and comment it if it's defined..
You may have also a trouble with the full domain name .
I.E. nslookup on hostname works but not on hostname.domain.com !!!
check /etc/resolv.conf with the domain line !!! You can add in this file the line :
domain domain.com

hth
Benoit
_______
"Les femmes, comme l'a dit un fran??ais plein d'esprit, nous inspirent le d??sir de r??aliser des chefs-d'oeuvre et nous emp??chent toujours de les mener a bout."
Oscar Wilde

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

All qf* files under /var/spool/mqueue should have the ownership (UID/GID)set of the effective user with which the sendmail process runs. i.e root in almost all cases.

If some qf* file with ownership set other than effective user is put in the mqueue directory then sendmail complains moves that bogus qf* file to Qf* file and prints your error.

In your error the UID of that bogus file is 176 and GID of that bogus file is 106 and permisions of that file is 100660. ofcourse bogus.

you can search for the UID 176 in /etc/passwd and find out the which user or user process is writing such bogus qf* file in mqueue directory.

Stop sendmail and remove all Qf* files under /var/spool/mqueue directory. All also set the permissions of mqueue directory such that only the root user can write to it.

regards,

U.SivaKumar

[Steve Buchan_1]

I checked /var/spool/mqueue, but this dir was empty. There was a /var/spool/clientmqueue dir, which had a bunch of files in it. I removed these and restarted sendmail. problem still exists.


I can do an nslookup of hostname, or hostname.domain.com no problem.

I commented out the serviceswitchfile line in sendmail.cf. The problem still exists.
The service switch file looks like this:
hosts files nis dns
aliases files nis dns

The UID and GID in question, refer to the smmsp user/group (sendmail account)

The mails in question are from the root account. although, no mails at all, no matter who sends them get thru.

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

Stop sendmail .

go to /var/spool/clientmqueue directory. Remove only the files starting with Q.

Give this command.

#chown root.smmsp /usr/sbin/sendmail

start sendmail daemon.

COme back with results.

regards,
U.SivaKumar

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Sorry forgot one step , after giving chown command.

Give this command.
#chmod 4555 /usr/sbin/sendmail

Then start sendmail .

regards,

U.SivaKumar

[Steve Buchan_1]

I did the first chown command, and it came back with:
chown: unknown user id root.smmsp

I changed the file to look like this:

-r-sr-xr-x 1 root smmsp

was this what you meant?

I restarted sendmail, but alas, the problem still exists.

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

my mistake should chown root:smmsp not root.smmsp. Anyway your current ownership is ok but problem is that set-gid bit is not set on your sendmail.

To do that

first
#chmod u-s /usr/sbin/sendmail
Then
#chmod 4555 /usr/sbin/sendmail
(or)
#chmod g+s /usr/sbin/sendmail

Now
#ll /usr/sbin/sendmail should be
r-x-s-x 1 root smmsp

see the s bit in the Group field.

Restart sendmail and please come back with results.

regards,
U.SivaKumar

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Should be,
r-xr-sr-x 1 root smmsp

[Steve Buchan_1]

ok, I got the permissions set, removed /var/spool/clientmqueue/Q*, restarted sendmail.

I Still get the same messages. attached are the entries from /var/adm/syslog/mail.log.

Thanks for mucking thru this with me :)


Steve

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

please paste the output of

#ll /usr/sbin/sendmail
#ll -d /var/spool/clientmqueue/

regards,

U.SivaKumar

[Steve Buchan_1]

-r-sr-sr-x 1 root smmsp 880640 Jan 7 22:27 /usr/sbin/sendmail

drwxrwx--- 2 smmsp smmsp 8192 Feb 12 11:08 /var/spool/clientmqueue

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

Give these commands.

#chmod 770 /var/spool/clientmqueue
#chmod u-s /usr/sbin/sendmail

Restart sendmail and try again.

paste

ll /usr/sbin/sendmail


regards,

U.SivaKumar

[Steve Buchan_1]

same results.

-r-xr-sr-x 1 root smmsp /usr/sbin/sendmail

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

Stop the sendmail.

#fuser -u /var/spool/clientmqueue

Paste the output .

regards,

U.SivaKumar

[U.SivaKumar_2]

Hi,

paste

ll -d /var/spool/mqueue

After that

chmod 700 /var/spool/mqueue
chown root:mail /var/spool/mqueue

Restart sendmail and try again.

regards,
U.SivaKumar

[Steve Buchan_1]

no output from fuser.
#fuser -u /var/spool/clientmqueue
/var/spool/clientmqueue:

#