I'm really frustrated. With RedHat 9.0 I just install the
sendmail package, unconfigure the one line in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc
that is documented therein for enabling remote mail; add
a few lines to get for auth mechanisms and viola...
SSL *and* SMTP-AUTH work perfectly. and I only hade to touch a
single file.
But Debian... A whole different matter... I've tried sendmail
and couldn't get jack working.
I'ld like to use exim4 (mostly just to spite sendmail and the four
days I wasted on it). I've got STARTTLS working now but I have
two remaining questions:
1) and most important: How can I get SMTP-AUTH working with the
"database" that I already have created called /etc/passwd and
/etc/shadow? All of my users have login accounts and the last
thing I want to have to do is maintain and synchronize multiple
authentication databases.
I threw this in /etc/exim4/conf.d/auth/30_exim4-config_examples
plain:
driver = plaintext
public_name = PLAIN
server_condition = "${if pam{$2:$3}{1}{0}}"
server_set_id = $2
and this in /etc/pam.d/exim
auth required pam_unix.so
account required pam_unix.so
password required pam_unix.so
AUTH PLAIN is advertised but authentication fails...
535 Incorrect authentication data (set_id=testuser) I've checked
the base64 data and it is perfect and correct.
Would somebody please save me and tell me the *easiest* way
to configure exim to do SMTP-AUTH against the information
contained in the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files?
I'ld prefer using pam but from what I've read I think
it may require exim to be run with root privileges which
I would rather not due but I certainly don't want to have
to install all sorts of third party support authentication
packages like sendmail wants.
I'm totally wrong in thinking that this is probably the
most used mechanism for SMTP-AUTH? Why is it so damn
hard to get it working in all the MTAs I've tried?
2) (Yes I did say there where two questions) Why does exim
take so long to send the 220 mail ESMTP greeting? exactly
30 seconds every time. That seems too long.
Bonus question: What's up with the /etc/exim4/conf.d direction
setup in the Debian package?? Nothing in the exim specifications
indicate anything other than a single flat exim configuration
file. Did the Debian maintainer just complicate it for the
sake of steepening the learning curve?
Thanks for your expertise,
- Jeff
