<solved, sort of> Was Re: mutt won't send emails, kmail does
On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 07:11:20PM +0100, Peter J Ross wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 01:36:14PM +0100, geoffthur@ntlworld.com wrote:
>
> > Hello list,
> >
> > I've switched to using mutt, but I can't get it to send emails. It's a
> > new install of sarge, and is bang up to date. Kmail does send emails -
> > including this one.
>
> Your email doesn't seem to have been sent through Exim. I have a
> header like this when sending through Exim:
>
> Received: from debian.pjr-online.co.uk ([127.0.0.1] ident=pjr)
> by debian.pjr-online.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.50)
> id 1DFy1h-0005LN-5g
> for pjr@britishlibrary.net; Mon, 28 Mar 2005
> 18:27:45 +0100
>
> ...and you don't.
Aha. As mentioned in my reply to Michelle I now wonder whether kmail
needs an MTA at all.
>
> > I don't seem to be able to send local mail either -
> > or if I can I can't see where they are going. I've tried mailing root,
> > and have root: geoff in /etc/aliases, but the mails seem to disappear.
>
> Have you looked in /var at Exim's queue and logs to see what might
> have happened to your messages?
I did, but couldn't understand them. It might have been an idea for me
to have included them in my email, though, so apologies for that.
>
> > Root can mail user geoff, though. This suggests to me that it's going
> > to be a blatantly obvious group or permissions problem, but I can't see
> > where. User geoff is in the mail group, and has been in and out of
> > Debian-exim group, but neither worked.
>
> Neither of them should be necessary. I don't belong to either group
> and everything works.
Ah. That's interesting. In that case I might take myself back out now
I've got things working okay.
>
> > I'm using exim4 at the moment,
> > but have tried postfix also. netstat -lpetu shows exim4 to be
> > listening.
> >
> > My .muttrc looks like this:
> >
> > set folder=~/Mail
> > set sendmail="/usr/sbin/exim4"
>
> This line isn't necessary. There should be a symlink at
> /usr/sbin/sendmail.
Indeed there was. Good point. I found the entry while googling in
shotgun mode and just put it in there regardless. No wonder it didn't
help much.
>
> > unset bounce_delivered
> > set copy=yes
> > set delete=yes
> > set nomark_old
> > set move=yes
> > set postponed=+postponed
> > set record=+outbox
> > mailboxes +geoffthur +green +suspect +science +crt-users
> > subscribe debian-user
>
> What about
> set from = user@domain.com
> set realname = "Your Name"
which will save me some time. Yes, thanks, I'll use those.
>
> or (deprecated)
>
> set my_hdr From: "Your Name" <user@domain.com>
>
>
> Are you using procmail? If so, it may be delivering mail somewhere
> other than /var/mail/user.
>
> Otherwise your .muttrc looks fine to me.
>
> > At one stage I was getting an error message when I tried to send emails,
> > but I forgot to write down the error, and can't remember how I got rid
> > of it. Currently the mail claims to have been sent, but doesn't go
> > anywhere apart from the outbox folder, where the copies are going. When
> > I start kmail it finds them all and wants to send them.
>
> This is because KMail has a special meaning for "outbox". I suggest
> calling your record folder something else, or KMail will always want
> to resend all your sent mail again.
Yes, another good point. Of course, I never expected to be using kmail
again so just made use of the outbox since it was already there. It was
a confusion waiting to happen, though.
>
> > I have been
> > changing things backward and forward for days now, and have googled and
> > RTFMed in vain. Surely kmail would use exim4?
>
> Only if you set it up that way. You'd need to set up an account with
> "sendmail" instead of "smtp", IIRC. It might be worth doing that to
> find out whether Exim or Mutt is the problem.
Ah, so you can actually choose whether to use Exim or not? That's interesting
too.
> > In which case the problem
> > is in how I have set mutt up? I'm confused, and know the answer must be
> > blindingly obvious.
> >
> > Sorry if I've failed to give enough info for you to help.
>
> Also try "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" as root.
Yes, I did that a few times.
>If you send all mail
> through your ISP, the configuration for "smarthost" ought to be ideal.
>
> Giving up is almost unthinkable,
Uh, no. Not nearly almost. ;-)
>but you could try installing msmtp
> for outgoing mail if all else fails. It lacks Exim's byzantine
> complexity.
>
Many thanks for all the help. I've actually gone for Michelle's suggestion
of ssmtp, and it seems fine - after a bit of getting used to it. I might
take a look at msmtp too, but possibly not tonight. Thanks again for taking
the time to help me. Or giving the time, rather. :-)
Cheers,
Geoff
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