I am setting up a mailserver on my Linode, following your instructions for a Postfix / Dovecot / Mysql installation.

It isn't working. My mail.log includes this error:

dovecot: auth-worker(9629): Error: sql(admin@hammeringbits.net): User query failed: Table 'mailserver.users' doesn't exist (using built-in default user_query: SELECT home, uid, gid FROM users WHERE username = '%n' AND domain = '%d')

I've checked the instructions, and I don't see any designation of a user_query value in the Dovecot (nor Postfix) configuration. I don't have a table 'user' as the instructions don't call for creation of one.


Any help would be appreciated.

Go into mysql (either from the command line, phpmyadmin or a desktop application) and add a table named 'users' to the 'mailserver' database.

If the mailserver database isn't there then you need to see what you may have missed during your installation.


MSJ

This seems to have resolved the issue. Caveat emptor, I'm still debugging the configurations and don't yet have the server working.

NOTE that creation of this table is not mentioned in the (excellent) Linode Library piece on Postfix, Dovecot and Mysql. Neither is addition of lines to the main Dovecot configuration file setting namespace -- these are:

namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
}

I suggest updating the guides for these omissions. I would also suggest noting in them 1) the date of the latest update (might already be there) 2) the version numbers of the Postfix, Dovecot and MySQL installations used. The latter would help readers quickly check to see if they are in some other version, and possibly need to capture upgrades in their configurations.