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quick story up front, so that you understand my current state better.

I am trying to install Dovecot + Postfix on a Debian system by this tutorial.

I know this tutorial is original made for Ubuntu, but I pretty much ported everything to debian. The great thing about Linux, huh? ^^ I of course used all the newest versions out of Debian 6s default repositories. Which means: Dovecot 2.1.7 Postfix 2.7.1-1+squeeze1 Postfix-mysql 2.7.1-1+squeeze1

So, I got a little problems in Step 3 where is says:

apt-get install postfix postfix-mysql dovecot-core dovecot-imapd dovecot-pop3d dovecot-lmtpd dovecot-mysql mysql-server

I got no problem with all the stuff I already had on the server, like postfix and mysql. But there was a problem with the installation of "dovecot-pop3d" and "dovecot-imapd". For example:

root@server /etc/dovecot # apt-get install dovecot-pop3d
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
dovecot-pop3d : Depends: dovecot-common (= 1:1.2.15-7)
E: Broken packages

(funny, blockquotes and code blocks are looking exactly alike)

I searched a little on the internet and found out that from Dovecot 2.1 on the dovecot-common are replaced by dovecot-core.

So I tried to archieve greatness without completly following step 3 and did not install dovecot-pop3d and dovecot-imapd.

So..now I am at Step 43 where it says, I should (re-)start my dovecot. I tried and got this:

Restarting IMAP/POP3 mail server: dovecotFatal: service(pop3) access(/usr/lib/dovecot/pop3) failed: No such file or directory failed!

There is actually no binary under /usr/lib/dovecot called pop3, but I can not install it, because of the problem with apt-get mentioned above. And here is the reason I can not install dovecot-common:

root@server /etc/dovecot # apt-get -s install dovecot-common
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  dovecot-core dovecot-lmtpd dovecot-mysql
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  dovecot-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Remv dovecot-mysql [1:2.1.7-7~bpo60+1]
Remv dovecot-lmtpd [1:2.1.7-7~bpo60+1]
Remv dovecot-core [1:2.1.7-7~bpo60+1]
Inst dovecot-common (1:1.2.15-7 Debian:6.0.8/oldstable, Debian-Security:6.0/oldstable [amd64])
Conf dovecot-common (1:1.2.15-7 Debian:6.0.8/oldstable, Debian-Security:6.0/oldstable [amd64])

I am just wondering if the Debian repositories are out of date? I mean, I can not use dovecot-pop3d with dovecot-core, because dovecot-common is needed. But it can not be used, because it wraps the same functionality as dovecot-core.

Am I overlooking something here?

Thanks for reading :)

func0der

Update 2014-01-16:

/etc/apt/sources.list

#######################################################################################
# Mirror
#

deb     http://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/linux/Debian/debian/  squeeze  main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/linux/Debian/debian/  squeeze  main non-free contrib

deb     http://security.debian.org/  squeeze/updates  main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/  squeeze/updates  main contrib non-free

deb     http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main contrib non-free
func0der
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  • Post your `/etc/apt/sources.list` sources. – Michael Hampton Jan 26 '14 at 01:12
  • Edited my initial question. – func0der Jan 26 '14 at 13:01
  • Have you tried without the backports repository? – ptman Jan 26 '14 at 13:10
  • The package is still in backports. Did you do something crazy like pin packages? Check `/etc/apt/preferences`. And why on earth are you still running squeeze? – Michael Hampton Jan 26 '14 at 16:55
  • @ ptman: I have tried. Nothing changed, but that I can not find version for e.g. "dovecot-core" anymore. @MichaelHampton: I do not have that file and I have not pinned any packages, because I do not know what that could be. I realised yesterday after this post, that there is a new version of Debian. But I do not understand why you are so shocked that I did not touch my running system just to upgrade to a new version of my OS?! – func0der Jan 26 '14 at 17:22
  • You're installing new functionality. It's generally not reasonable to do this on an existing system; servers should be dedicated to a single purpose. – Michael Hampton Jan 26 '14 at 17:24
  • So, you are telling me, installing stuff like Plesk or cPanel on your system is not reasonable, because it comes with a web server, a mail server, a database server and an ftp server? If you are having multiple vServers I agree with you. But on a Root server I think it is reasonable to share resources for different funtionality. But that is not the question here. Let's get back to topic. – func0der Jan 26 '14 at 17:33
  • @MichaelHampton So..any other tips than updating my OS? I know I have possible no other choice, because the Repositories are not consistent enough to run Dovecot with the newest version under Debian 6, but is that the really the end of the story? – func0der Jan 28 '14 at 12:55

1 Answers1

1

Okay, I am answering this here myself.

The repository is indead broken for the configuration I am trying to archieve. Without dovecot-lmtpd it may have worked, but with it, the things get very messy.

I seems like the tip of @ptman was essential. dovecot-lmtpd 2.1.x needs dovecot-core which is incompatible with dovecot-common. The 2.1.xx version comes out of the backports repository.

I updated my Debian to 7 and now it is working just fine.

Thanks for the help. It seems with my configuration, Debian 6 and Dovecot, it is not possible to install dovecot with the current state of the repositories. Correct me, if I am wrong.

Regards

func0der

func0der
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