Thank you, Nick, much appreciated.
In the brief interval between posting my question and your reply, I did
find a video series from "Raspberry Pi Coding" - here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyQGW3zerls&list=PLibQjquhfgjjosRrZxlDepXfehDXuQJu_
and watched through most of those episodes yesterday. I found that the
author, James, goes a lot further in terms of explaining a detailed
step-by-step process whilst also explaining most of the intricacies
needed to get this working and so I'm going to try that as a first step.
As Brad observes in his reply, it looks as though most of my challenges
have originated from my attempting to follow "Dovecot 2.3 instructions"
whilst running "Dovecot 2.4 code"... and I note with a certain
inevitability that not one of the 13 different text-based articles or 2
videos I've reviewed so far bother to start with a summary of software
versions they use...
I suspect the approach I need is to combine both your and Brad's
suggestions - strip the configuration back to the absolute basics to
eliminate avoidable complexity ... then work through each of the
configuration file sections in a split-screen mode - with the config
file open in nano on one screen and a browser on the Dovecot
documentation on the other.
Thanks for taking the time to respond and for your advice - much
appreciated.
Cheers
Clive
On 06/05/2026 22:51, Nick Chalk via Hampshire wrote:
> Hello.
>
> On Tuesday, 05 May, 2026, you wrote
>> The TLDR; is - First time poster here, hoping
>> that someone might be able to direct me to a
>> guide to help me install a Postfix/Dovecot/
>> MariaDB setup on a Raspberry Pi 4B running
>> Trixie please?
> Well, I have two systems running Postfix and
> Dovecot. I don't use MariaDB, though, nor do I use
> a RaspberryPi.
>
>> Current setup:-
>>
>> * Nominated Mail Server Host – Raspberry Pi 4B / running “Trixie”
>> * Proposed MTA – Postfix (“Compatability Level 3.6”)
>> * Proposed MDA/IMAP/POP3 – Dovecot 2.4.1-4
>> * Proposed SQL Server – MariaDB 11.8.5 [hosted on primary QNAP NAS]
>> * Existing DNS Infrastructure – Technitium DNS running on a
>> Primary/Secondary pair of Pi4Bs...
>>
>> Current State of Play:-
>>
>> * I have set up most of the requirements DNS – all but the DKIM record…
> I've not attempted DKIM - so far, SPF seems
> sufficient for me.
>
>> * I have [I think!] successfully installed and configured Postfix,
>> using this guide:-
>>
>> https://raw.org/tutorial/seting-up-email-server-with-postfix-dovecot-and-mysql/
> ...
>> * I’ve followed the guide all the way through editing Dovecot
> ...
>
> My first question would be whether you actually
> need an SQL database. Will you be hosting mail for
> many people?
>
> My two installations use either the hash or cdb
> storage methods, which are file-based.
>
>> /“dovecot[20420]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file
>> /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext line 186: passdb_args: Unknown
>> setting: passdb_args (passdb_passdb_args or passdb_sql_passdb_args
>> not found either.)”/
> I can't see the string "passdb_args" in the
> instructions you have listed above, or in Dovecot's
> documentation. Is it simply a typo?
>
> My initial advice would be to start with a simpler
> system. Test the Postfix configuration first,
> preferably using local users. You should be able
> to send mail to the Postfix server and have it
> delivered to a mailbox on the RaspberryPi.
>
> Once that is working, you can set up Dovecot to
> read that local mailbox - perhaps just using IMAP
> to start with.
>
> Running up a reliable and secure mail system is
> hard. It's best to use the simplest possible
> configuration.
>
> Nick.
>
--
Please post to: Hampshire@???
Manage subscription:
https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
LUG website:
http://www.hantslug.org.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------
