I have a vps running ubuntu 10.04LTS on an openVZ platform. On top of
that I installed Virtualmin GPL to help host web sites and simplify
mail setup. I don't have much need for mail at the moment but I expect
to in the next few months.
Recently I ssh'd into the machine and did this:
logwatch --mailto=m...@mydomain.com
and after a few seconds I got a series of errors ending at line 870 in
logwatch. The vps has 1.5 gigs guaranteed, 8GB burst, two cores, 40
gigs storage. Lots of resources as far as I can see.
Investigation showed postfix not running. So...
I issued this command to try to start postfix:
sudo service postfix start
and syslog shows this output:
Nov 4 17:01:15 cl28810 postfix/master[11337]: fatal: bind:
private/lmtp: No such file or directory
Nov 4 17:01:36 cl28810 postfix/postfix-script[11515]: warning: not
owned by postfix: /var/spool/postfix/private/anvil
Nov 4 17:01:36 cl28810 postfix/postfix-script[11516]: warning: not
owned by postfix: /var/spool/postfix/private/lmtp
Nov 4 17:01:36 cl28810 postfix/postfix-script[11517]: warning: not
owned by postfix: /var/spool/postfix/private/scache
Nov 4 17:01:36 cl28810 postfix/postfix-script[11518]: warning: not
owned by postfix: /var/spool/postfix/private/maildrop
Nov 4 17:01:37 cl28810 postfix/postfix-script[11549]: starting the
Postfix mail system
Nov 4 17:01:37 cl28810 postfix/master[11550]: fatal: bind:
private/lmtp: No such file or directory
I don't understand the significance of these errors, although I can
see they could cause problems.
logwatch used to work on this machine so postfix was working then, a
few months back. I had a look into /var/spool/postfix/private and got:
# ls -l /var/spool/postfix/private/
ls: cannot access /var/spool/postfix/private/anvil: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /var/spool/postfix/private/lmtp: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /var/spool/postfix/private/scache: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /var/spool/postfix/private/maildrop: No such file or
directory
total 0
s????????? ? ? ? ? ? anvil
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 bounce
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-09-27 00:20 bsmtp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 defer
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 discard
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 error
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-09-27 00:20 ifmail
s????????? ? ? ? ? ? lmtp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 local
s????????? ? ? ? ? ? maildrop
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-09-27 00:20 mailman
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 proxymap
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 proxywrite
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 relay
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 retry
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 rewrite
s????????? ? ? ? ? ? scache
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-09-27 00:20 scalemail-backend
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 smtp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 tlsmgr
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 trace
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-09-27 00:20 uucp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 verify
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-11-09 16:06 virtual
and again don't understand what the significance of these errors is,
or, more to the point, what to do to either diagnose or fix the problem.
Ideas??
Dave
--
It is told that such are the aerodynamics and wing loading of the
bumblebee that, in principle, it cannot fly...if all this be
true...life among bumblebees must bear a remarkable resemblance to
life in the United States.
-- John Kenneth Galbraith, in American Capitalism: The Concept of
Countervailing Power
