[Dovecot] pam_authenticate() failed: authentication error

[Zbigniew Szalbot]

Hi!

> Did you forget something? Like, maybe some basic info on your system,
> dovecot version, dovecot -n output, etc?

Sorry about that! Dovecot works so well that I haven't had a need to ask
any questions for a long time. Because of that I kind of forgot to specify
the basics. I use dovecot-1.1.10

And here's the output of dovecot -n

# 1.1.10: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
# OS: FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p9 i386  ufs
base_dir: /var/run/dovecot/
protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
listen: XX.XXX.XXX.XXX
ssl_cert_file: /etc/ssl/apache/server.crt
ssl_key_file: /etc/ssl/apache/server.key
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot//login
login_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
login_greeting: SGM Lifewords list server ready.
login_greeting_capability(default): yes
login_greeting_capability(imap): yes
login_greeting_capability(pop3): no
verbose_proctitle: yes
first_valid_uid: 125
last_valid_uid: 125
first_valid_gid: 125
last_valid_gid: 125
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: maildir:/usr/local/virtual/%d/%n
mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3
imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail netscape-eoh
tb-extra-mailbox-sep
imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail netscape-eoh
tb-extra-mailbox-sep
imap_client_workarounds(pop3):
pop3_client_workarounds(default):
pop3_client_workarounds(imap):
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
auth default:
  mechanisms: plain login
  username_format: %Lu
  passdb:
    driver: pam
    args: session=yes dovecot
  passdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
    args: blocking=yes
  userdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
  socket:
    type: listen
    client:
      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
      mode: 432
      user: postfix
      group: postfix
    master:
      path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
      mode: 384


>
> Most of us have non-working crystal balls most of the time - although
> Timos works rather well in many cases...

I know :) I am really sorry!

-- 
Zbigniew Szalbot