On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:20:00 +0100 Anne Wilson <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> Of course, if Anne _is_ using a local mail server, Thunderbird > >> must point to /var/spool/mail/anne. But she can receive mail on > >> the notebook, where that file doesn't exist, so I assume she is > >> using straight POP or IMAP. > >> > > > > If indeed Anne is using POP or IMAP to collect "local" mail then I > > don't think she needs to configure a Unix Movemail account in > > thunderbird. I believe it is that account that is looking at > > /var/spool/mail/anne. Perhaps she has such an account on Mageia 2 > > but not in cauldron, which would explain why she does not see the > > error messages on cauldron. > > > To be honest I don't recall ever hearing of movemail before this, so I > don't know where it comes from. > > Anne Me either. "Local" mail, the mail that collects in /var/spool/mail, is often generated by the system. I have 3 user accounts (one for a user that no longer exists.) Postfix was installed because something else needs it, and has a mailbox as well. At the moment postfix has 500 KB in it, which will all be system messages that I don't worry about. The others are all empty. My doug account was cleaned out when I read mail with Claws. If you have a mail server on your computer, that collects mail from the Web and distributes it to users on your network, it will be placed initially in /var/spool/mail/xxxx. I use getmail to put it there then run it through dspam, to filter out the spam. Before then, I just downloaded my mail by POP straight into ~/.kde4/kmail/mail. You will be doing much the same. IMAP seems to use dovecot or similar, but I know nothing about it. My ISP supports IMAP, but I don't need it. It seems to have value only for people who get their mail at different locations. I suppose that if you are like me, you have run through your Thunderbird config a dozen times. I am inclined to copy the working config you have on the notebook, but others tell me it is bad practice. You need to tell Thunderbird to collect mail from your ISP, but your problem seems to have something to do with permissions. It should be able to read your "anne" mailbox in the spool and truncate it, because it should be owned by user anne and group mail, but for a simple POP account, it should be looking at one of the files in /home/anne/.thunderbird/4upsp8fe.default/Mail/Local Folders/ You could try running "locate -i Inbox" to find out where your Inbox is. The other thought is that the 4upsp8fe.default is a user directory as with Mozilla. Is there another one alongside it? Thunderbird may be looking at the wrong one? You can redirect system mail, like my 500K in Postfix, to go to your user account. I simply trust the system. Since I haven't used Thunderbird for a long time, I can't offer any specific help. Doug.
