gmail -> offlineimap -> (local imap) -> alpine (under Ubuntu)

[Chris Dennis]

> It's hard to describe how frustrated I am. I have a perfectly working
> latest Ubuntu system, think I know how to google, and have spent
> thousands of dollars of my time going in circles trying to set this up,
> based on so many people's partial instructions or statements that it
> should be easy.

Hopefully this will help -- I don't know how much of this you know already.

My setup is:

$ sudo dovecot -n
# 1.2.15: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 i686 Debian 6.0.2
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
imap_client_workarounds: outlook-idle
auth default:
   passdb:
     driver: pam
   userdb:
     driver: passwd

Note that mail_location defaults to 'maildir:~/Maildir', i.e. each 
user's ~/Maildir.

Dovecot needs each mailbox to contain directories named 'cur', 'new', 
and 'tmp'.  The command 'maildirmake.dovecot' will set them up for you.

>
> Nothing like this is "obvious" without an explicit list of actions. I
> cannot do it, and I don't have any explicit questions, because I don't
> know where to start. From what I read, there are many things that might
> need changing in multiple config files, and everything I've tried
> doesn't work.
>
> At the moment, dovecot -n says:
>
> # 2.0.13: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
> # OS: Linux 3.0.0-13-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 11.10
> mail_location =
> maildir:~/Maildir/gmailCpbl:LAYOUT=fs:INBOX=~/Maildir/gmailCpbl/INBOX
> passdb {
> driver = pam
> }
> protocols = " imap"
> ssl = no
> userdb {
> driver = passwd
> }
>
>
>
> and while dovecot seems to be running,

What's in dovecot's log?  or in syslog?

 > alpine fails to get a response
> from localhost,993. Also, "dovecot --exec-mail imap" fails, claiming the
> option doesn't exist.

Could it be a firewall issue?

cheers

Chris

-- 
Chris Dennis                                  cgdennis at btinternet.com
Fordingbridge, Hampshire, UK