OK, I found the syslog. It was /var/log/maillog
It does contain some pertinent info.
It records my attempts to start, for example
Jun 16 07:12:54 r84aap011904 qmail: 929531574.959200 alert: cannot start:
unable to read controls
Hmm....
I can't understand why
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 8:28 AM
> To: Qmail@List. Cr. Yp. To
> Subject: Reinstall
>
>
> Thanks for all the help yesterday.
>
> I've been making penance and have reinstalled QMAIL. At first I couldn't
> understand why the userid's were only numbers and I realized that to
> reinstall I had to run 'make setup check' from scratch after making the
> proper users.
>
> So I did a really clean install (or so I thought)
>
> I deleted the /var/qmail directory
> I deleted the alias and qmail* users
> I deleted the group nofiles and qmail
> I deleted my installation directory
> (I left the Maildir and .qmail (with ./Maildir/) in my etc/skel)
> (I left the qmail startup line in rc.local - I hope that wasn't a sin)
> (I left my Maildir directory in my own user account Alex, which has some
> test mail in the new directory)
> I did a shutdown
>
> When I came back up
>
> I created the /var/qmail directory
> I created the groups nofiles and qmail, and the users alias and qmail*
> I ran the make setup check
> I ran ./config
> As the alias user I copied the .qmail in ~alias to .qmail-postmaster,
> .qmail-root, and .qmail-mailer-daemon (they have the ./Maildir)
> I deleted the .qmail from the ~alias directory (it came from /etc/skel)
> I deleted the spurious .qmail from /var/qmail and
> /var/qmail/alias (it came
> from /etc/skel)
> I copied the /var/qmail/boot/home to /var/qmail/rc
> I changed the /var/qmail/rc to use Maildir instead of Mailbox
>
> I thought I was good to go at this point.
>
> Then I started qmail
> csh -cf '/var/qmail/rc &'
>
> I got a response
> [1] number (I don't remember the number)
>
> I did ps -aux | more
>
> none of the qmail processes had started :-(
> I tried a shutdown to let it start from rc.local
> still no qmail processes
>
> I tried starting again
> csh -cf '/var/qmail/rc &'
>
> again I got a response
> [1] number
>
> but still nothing when I look use ps -aux | more
>
> Nothing happens when I attempt to send local-to-local using the echo test.
>
> I'd like to look at syslog to see what's there but I have NO IDEA where it
> is on my system. I'm using Linux Mandrake (Redhat + KDE).
>
> If I keep attempting to restart qmail I alsways get [1] number.
> My latest attempt showed [1] 10434
>
> Alex (I want virtual mail so bad I can taste it) Miller
>
