Dovecot 'BAD Error in IMAP command received by server'

Question

So I'm trying to set up a squirrel mail web server. These are the instructions I've followed

https://www.1and1.com/cloud-community/learn/application/e-mail/set-up-a-postfix-mail-server-with-dovecot-and-squirrelmail-on-ubuntu-1604/

this is what I find in the error log

Apr 26 17:53:01 tvpc-Inspiron-545 dovecot: imap(testygee): Error: User initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/testygee/mail) failed: Permission denied (euid=1001(testygee) egid=1001(testygee) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Apr 26 17:53:01 tvpc-Inspiron-545 dovecot: imap: Error: Invalid user settings. Refer to server log for more information.

# 2.2.22 (fe789d2): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# Pigeonhole version 0.4.13 (7b14904)
# OS: Linux 4.13.0-39-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS 
mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
namespace inbox {
  inbox = yes
  location = 
  mailbox Drafts {
    special_use = \Drafts
  }
  mailbox Junk {
    special_use = \Junk
  }
  mailbox Sent {
    special_use = \Sent
  }
  mailbox "Sent Messages" {
    special_use = \Sent
  }
  mailbox Trash {
    special_use = \Trash
  }
  prefix = 
}
passdb {
  driver = pam
}
protocols = " imap pop3"
ssl = no
userdb {
  driver = passwd
}
protocol imap {
  mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
}

And here are the settings for dovecot. Any idea where I'm going wrong? I'm assuming the error is within dovecot and not postfix

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 08 '20 at 21:56

(realizing this is a very old question,) Looking at the actual error in this case:

mkdir(/home/testygee/mail) failed: Permission denied (euid=1001(testygee) 
egid=1001(testygee) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755)

The problem is that the user dovecot is running as (testygee) does not have permissions to create the folder. Possible solutions are to grant write permissions to the folder to user 'testygee' by changing either folder ownerships or permissions. I would try:

chown testygee:testygee /home/testygee/

and see if that doesn't get it working for you.

Dovecot 'BAD Error in IMAP command received by server'

1 Answers1