Mutt/Postfix: User unknown in virtual alias table

Discussion in 'Installation/Configuration' started by somae, Oct 10, 2008.

  1. somae

    somae New Member

    I'm getting this message in /var/log/mail.log when trying to send email with mutt: "User unknown in virtual alias table" (The mail bounces). We've got Mutt 1.5.13 and Debian Linux 2.6.18-6-686 (i686).

    I have no problem sending mail with icedove (thunderbird).

    I'm new to postfix (and mutt) and don't understand how to configure the difference between our computer's domain and the domain of the dsl server.

    Help appreciated.
     
  2. falko

    falko Super Moderator Howtoforge Staff

    Did you create an email account on the server? If so, how?
     
  3. somae

    somae New Member

    Do you mean - did I create an email account on postfix? We created one in icedove and in evolution which both function ok.

    I did create an account using
    Code:
     sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash 
    although we already had a user set up previously.

    When I try to send mail to the user

    I get:
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2008
  4. falko

    falko Super Moderator Howtoforge Staff

  5. somae

    somae New Member

    Thanks. I no longer get the message about the user not being in the virtual alias table. But there still seems to be a problem.

    When I try sending mail thru "telnet localhost 25" etc., everything seems to go ok but the mail doesn't show up when I type "mail" for the user. It is showing up at /root/Maildir/new.

    Also, there is no /Maildir directory for some users and no /home/user directory for others.

    Update: the mail.log gives this error message: "warning: maildir access problem for UID/GID=1002/100: create maildir file home/sysuser/Maildir/tmp/122401558"
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2008
  6. falko

    falko Super Moderator Howtoforge Staff

    What's the output of
    Code:
    ls -la /home/sysuser
    ? Seems to be a permissions problem.
     
  7. somae

    somae New Member

    There isn't a directory named "sysuser" on the system even though I thought I created it using
    Code:
     sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash
    I just tried it again and got:
     
  8. falko

    falko Super Moderator Howtoforge Staff

    What's sysuser's home directory? You can find it in /etc/passwd.
     
  9. somae

    somae New Member

    sysuser:x:1002:100::/home/sysuser:/bin/sh
     
  10. falko

    falko Super Moderator Howtoforge Staff

    Try this:
    Code:
    mkdir /home/sysuser
    chown sysuser:users /home/sysuser
     
  11. somae

    somae New Member

    Thanks for your help.

    I am now able to send mail locally from mutt and it arrives in the sysuser's Maildir.
     

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