Hi folks!!
I almost can't believe how long it's been since I last posted anything on here! I've learnt loads, so undoubtedly I'll be making a few new posts in the near future! Anyway, on with the post...
Setting up Sendmail in a full install of Slackware 12+ (I've not tried it in any previous versions) is as easy as 123... Just su to root, and enter the following...
cd /usr/share/sendmail/cf/cf
sh Build sendmail-slackware.mc
cp sendmail-slackware.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
cp submit.cf /etc/mail/
chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail
/etc/rc.d/rc.sendmail start
That's it configured (in a very simple manner) and started. That wasn't what caused me all the trouble. The pain in my neck was caused when I tried to use telnet to test the server. I typed the following...
telnet localhost 25
HELO identifymyself
MAIL FROM: [email protected]
For the first two commands, I got the correct response. 220 on login, then 250 after the HELO.
After the MAIL FROM command, however, I got the response "550 5.0.0. Access Denied". After much delving into the guts of the system, and making sure that my firewall wasn't blocking anything from 127.0.0.1, I discovered the root of the problem. I had used the hosts.allow file fairly extensively to block external and internal access to services, and I had not included sendmail into this. The simple fix to the problem was to add the following to the /etc/hosts.allow and restart the sendmail server.
sendmail : [email protected]. [email protected]. [email protected].
Now the use of telnet to send a test email goes smoothly, as follows (server responses are in parentheses):
telnet localhost 25
(220 myserver.mydomain ESMTP Sendmail 8.14.2/8.14.2)
HELO identifymyself
(250 myserver.mydomain Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you)
MAIL FROM: [email protected]
(250 2.1.0 [email protected]... Sender ok)
RCPT TO: [email protected]
(250 2.1.5 [email protected]... Recipient ok)
DATA
(354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself)
Test Email. Just for testing purposes.
.
(250 2.0.0 0094t89gfdgd09 Message accepted for delivery)
^]
quit
I then checked my email account and found a subject-less email with the sender "[email protected]", and the text "Test Email. Just for testing purposes."
Fantastic!!
n00b