Evolution doesn't send

ferrix · 2003-08-04 01:51:33

Hi, I just installed my first Arch system (Nova). It was a bit of a challenege, but by reading the docs and this forum I was actually able to fix most issues to the point I now have a functional system. My one remaining problem is that Evolution won't send my mail, responding with a message:
error while performing operation: MAIL FROM response error: command unrecognized:""

I'm using Evolution to get my mail to and from POP3 account with my ISP. I tried to start Evolution from a terminal but I didn't get any other messages this way. Evolution works and will fetch my mail, just won't send it... Kmail does receive and send without any problems.

BTW, is there any way of enabling spellchecking in this build?

Mork II · 2003-08-04 14:04:54

I use webmail so I'm not sure about this, but I think you need a mail transfer agent (mta) to send your mail (in the past you needed fetchmail to get the mail as well). Sendmail, exim, postfix and qmail are possible solutions. Exim is included in nova so you can probably get help with that here if need be.

ferrix · 2003-08-04 23:47:55

thanks for that suggestion. I started exim, but I'm still getting the same error. For now I'm just using exim's defalult config file (which it says should work in simple cases). I was fully prepared for it not to work correctly, but I expected to see some evidence of activity when evolution tries to send its message. But no - exim log has no evidence of it even trying to do anything.... so basically at this point I'd just like to know what should I be even looking at - Evo or exim?

Gyroplast · 2003-08-05 07:12:19

Have a close look at Evolution's configuration. I never used it myself and have no clue how it is set up exactly, but try to find a setting similar to "outgoing mail server", "SMTP server address" or something similar. It should not be too hard to find, as it's (naturally) crucial information, not some obscure feature.

Once you think you've found it, enter the address of your ISP's mail forwarder into this field. The support of your ISP can tell you the address, it's probably "smtp.$ISP.com" or something.

Give that a try. Don't go the way over local MTA just now, it's not worth the hassle.

Greets,
Dennis

ferrix · 2003-08-05 10:19:34

well, I've been looking and asking around, and here is what I found:

Evolution can be set up to either send its mail through sendmail, or directly using its own SMTP protocol. There is a setting to this effect, and yes, mine is set to SMTP. So exim doesn't come into this. I am also 99.999% sure my ISP settings are correct, because:

a) they work in Kmail.
b) I checked and rechecked to make sure there is no spelling mistake.
c) I tried this once by making up Evolution settings from scratch, and again (for another user) by copying all settings from existing, working copy of Evolution on another machine, running Libranet.

BUT the results are the same. Iit still doesn't send!
Is this actually possible this build of Evolution is somehow compiled *without* SMTP support?

Gyroplast · 2003-08-05 10:45:47

Is this actually possible this build of Evolution is somehow compiled *without* SMTP support?

Could have been the problem, but isn't. Evolution does not seem to offer smtp as an configuration option, so one can't leave it out, either.

Your error message

error while performing operation: MAIL FROM response error: command unrecognized:""

also confirms that _some_ kind of SMTP dialog has been started, but your receiving SMTP has trouble with the "MAIL FROM" command generated by evolution.

Cheap shot:
Evolution sends a line reading

MAIL FROM: me@home.invalid

to the receiving SMTP. Unfortunately, some SMTPs require angled brackets around the email address, and spit out something to the effect of "unrecognized command" if these are not supplied. It'd be really helpful if you could set up a listening netcat on your machine, and "play SMTP server" for evolution yourself to see what it tries to do, and then replay these commands to your SMTP server manually to see when it barfs and why.

If that's beyond your abilities (it's the newbie corner after all) try to find an evolution mailing list to ask specifically if this might be a problem. No, I do not recall how angled brackets should be handled according to RFC2822, but I know for sure that I had problems a few times with missing brackets. At least when talking to an old MS Exchange SMTP. Kinda says it all.

Greets,
Dennis

Xentac · 2003-08-05 17:59:29

I would guess it was your mail server. I can send just fine with Evolution. It's probably what Gyroplast mentioned.

Austin · 2003-09-09 22:51:10

I get a solution.. is not the optimal, but it works
I instaled ssmtp and selected on my evolution acount to use sendmail and worked.
The issue is that was in my laptop, but in my desktop machine y have evolution, same version and i can use with smtp without troubles...
someone knows why this happen??? what do i nedd to use my smtp instead sendmails??

ferrix · 2003-09-10 11:37:25

OK I never did solve my Evolution problem - I just had to put it aside. But today inspired by Austin's post, I tried something: just for a lark I changed Evo's setting to "send via sendmail", and tried to send a message. Here's what appeared in /var/spool/mail :

From MAILER-DAEMON Wed Sep 10 21:06:15 2003
Return-path: <>
Envelope-to: afries@arc
Delivery-date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 21:06:15 +1000
Received: from exim by arc with local (Exim 4.22)
id 19x2nf-0003pS-RD
for afries@arc; Wed, 10 Sep 2003 21:06:15 +1000
X-Failed-Recipients: ferrix@linuxmail.org
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@arc>
To: afries@arc
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Message-Id: <E19x2nf-0003pS-RD@arc>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 21:06:15 +1000

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

ferrix@linuxmail.org
SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<ferrix@linuxmail.org>:
host linuxmail-org.mr.outblaze.com [205.158.62.147]:
504 <afries@arc>: No thank you rejected: need fully-qualified address

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <afries@arc>
Received: from afries by arc with local (Exim 4.22)
id 19x2nS-0003pP-RG
for ferrix@linuxmail.org; Wed, 10 Sep 2003 21:06:02 +1000
Subject: test2
From: Andrew Fries <afries@internode.on.net>
Reply-To: afries@internode.on.net
To: ferrix@linuxmail.org
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Organization: none
Message-Id: <1063191962.14692.2.camel@arc>
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.4
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 21:06:02 +1000
Sender: "andrew fries,,," <afries@arc>

-----------
now, that sender looks a bit screwy, does it not? Shouldn't it be "afries@internode.on.net", which is what it is set to in Evolution? I think my problem has something to do with the way I set up networking on this machine, but beyond that, I'm clueless...
BTW, I said "just for a lark". This is because I didn't expect it to get anywhere, since I never started either sendmail or exim. Yet here it is - how did that happen?

Austin · 2003-09-10 17:12:22

well, now seems to be some configuration problem..... well, about the sendmail config on evolution, the ssmtp package have the sendmail's archives on it, so, thats the reason why is working, but as equal to you it, the problem starts when you install archlinux, some dependencies or packages are not installed (i did minimal instalation on my laptop, where the problem exist, but on my desktop machine, i did a semi-full install and I don't have the problem).

So, the evolution package manteiner should take a look of this and start looking for the missing program to include it....

BTW should be evolution packages take away while this is resolved??? because of this problem, they should take away the STABLE status of the package until get resolved

ferrix · 2003-09-12 07:10:02

While I could not find the reason for my troubles I managed to figure out how to configure Exim to use it instead of Evolution's inbuilt smtp protocol, and that solved the problem. Here is how, for the benefit of the archives:

- in Evolution, change the setting in "Settings -> youraccount -> Sending Mail" to Sendmail, rather than SMTP. On Arch this will actually invoke Exim, because if you look at /usr/sbin/sendmail it is in fact a link to Exim.
There is no need to start Exim as a daemon, it will be called as needed.

- now we need to configure Exim to rely outgoing mail to your ISP mail server, by editing /etc/mail/exim.conf
find these lines, and comment them out, like so:
#dnslookup:
# driver = dnslookup
# domains = ! +local_domains
# transport = remote_smtp
# ignore_target_hosts = 0.0.0.0 : 127.0.0.0/8
# no_more

instead we'll use this (copied directly from exim.org docs):
send_to_gateway:
driver = manualroute
domains = !+local_domains
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = * smtp.yourisp.domain

(adjust smtp.yourisp.com as required)

right at the beginning of that file, find the endtry for primary_hostname
and make it:
primary_hostname = yourisp.domain

that's it!

Austin · 2003-09-12 15:14:06

Ferrix, sorry, but didn't work out.... the mails are loosing in "time and space".
I changed the exim.conf as you said, i send emails and no one of them arrival. I check logs, but they are empty.. chech queue on mail server.. and nothing was there.. they just simply desapeared..

If you have another idea or you can post your exim.conf to see if something was missed by me, i will be very happy

ferrix · 2003-09-13 10:53:35

Austin sorry to hear this didn't work for you. I assure you these lines are all I changed in the default exim.conf Maybe you need to play around with the primary hostname line? In my case, the name of the user on my local box is the same as my ISP user name, this might be relevant. Beyond that - no idea...

Austin · 2003-09-14 23:37:12

thanks, when i get back to my house i will test it (if i can get bluetooth work properly first)

Austin · 2003-11-10 21:27:37

After a long time with the problem and googling a little bit i've found the solution right here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … genumber=1

basically you have to delete all the comments and empty lines from your /etc/hosts file..

works like a charm!!

greets,

Arch Linux

#1 2003-08-04 01:51:33

Evolution doesn't send

#2 2003-08-04 14:04:54

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#3 2003-08-04 23:47:55

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#4 2003-08-05 07:12:19

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#5 2003-08-05 10:19:34

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#6 2003-08-05 10:45:47

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#7 2003-08-05 17:59:29

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#8 2003-09-09 22:51:10

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#9 2003-09-10 11:37:25

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#10 2003-09-10 17:12:22

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#11 2003-09-12 07:10:02

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#12 2003-09-12 15:14:06

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#13 2003-09-13 10:53:35

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#14 2003-09-14 23:37:12

Re: Evolution doesn't send

#15 2003-11-10 21:27:37

Re: Evolution doesn't send

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