Strange Thunderbird IMAP problem
John Thompson
One is a laptop, running Vectorlinux-4.2; the other is a desktop,
running Fedora 10 x86_64. Thunderbird is configured identically on both
to ccess to separate IMAP accounts. Until this morning, both worked
fine. Now the Fedora machine can no longer access my gmail IMAP account;
it times out without establishing the connection. My laptop can still
connect perfectly well. Did I mention they were configured identically?
There are no firewall rules blocking gmail on the desktop machine:
[root@lancre ~]# iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Chain blocksshd (0 references)
target prot opt source destination
I can send mail from the desktop machine via gmail's smtp service, but
copying the sent message to the IMAP folder fails, because the connection
cannot be established. The mail is received properly by the laptop
machine.
WTF is going on? The only change in the system was installing Fedora's
newest kernel and rebooting, as requested by the system update applet.
# uname -a
Linux lancre 2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Feb 23 13:00:23
EST 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
The last mail received from gmail on the desktop machine was at 0745CST
this morning, just prior to installing the new kernel and rebooting.
I can't imagine a kernel update specifically blocking IMAP on gmail, but
I have no other clues to go on.
--
John (jo...@os2.dhs.org)
John Thompson
> WTF is going on? The only change in the system was installing Fedora's
> newest kernel and rebooting, as requested by the system update applet.
>
> The last mail received from gmail on the desktop machine was at 0745CST
> this morning, just prior to installing the new kernel and rebooting.
>
> I can't imagine a kernel update specifically blocking IMAP on gmail, but
> I have no other clues to go on.
Following up on my own post -- I did the obvious and rebooted using the
old kernel. No joy, the problem is still there, so it's not the kernel.
My other IMAP account works fine with thunderbird. The only difference
between gmail's IMAP and the other account is that gmail uses SSL while
the other account uses TLS. Both accounts still work fine from my laptop,
and are, as you surely recall, configured identically to the Fedora
machine.
Another, perhaps related anomaly on the Fedora machine: xterm no longer
accepts input from the keyboard. Gnome Terminal works fine. Konsole
works fine. XFCE Terminal works fine. aterm works fine. xterm doesn't. I
recompiled xterm from sources and reinstalled it. Still no joy.
Everything other terminal program I try works; xterm doesn't. This
again is new behavior since rebooting after Fedora's updates this
morning.
--
John (jo...@os2.dhs.org)
Roberto Divia
> I have 2 computers here running linux nd using Thunderbird for email.
> One is a laptop, running Vectorlinux-4.2; the other is a desktop,
> running Fedora 10 x86_64. Thunderbird is configured identically on both
> to ccess to separate IMAP accounts. Until this morning, both worked
> fine. Now the Fedora machine can no longer access my gmail IMAP account;
> it times out without establishing the connection. My laptop can still
> connect perfectly well.
Hi John,
see is this helps:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=409259
An easy workaround is to increase the network timeout from 60 to something much
higher (depends on your imap server and on your connection). This while waiting
for Thunderbird to be fixed. Ah, it applies to Thunderbird 2.0.*...
Ciao,
--
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Maxwell Lol
> Another, perhaps related anomaly on the Fedora machine: xterm no longer
> accepts input from the keyboard. Gnome Terminal works fine. Konsole
> works fine. XFCE Terminal works fine. aterm works fine. xterm doesn't. I
> recompiled xterm from sources and reinstalled it. Still no joy.
> Everything other terminal program I try works; xterm doesn't. This
> again is new behavior since rebooting after Fedora's updates this
> morning.
This is an example why I don't like Fedora for personal use.
Workings systems stop when updated.
blueparty
I have not used Fedora since version 4, and only can offer you some tips
to help you debugging.
First, try creating another, fresh user account on the problematic
machine and set up IMAP account for it. See if it works. I don't mean
just another Thunderbird profile, but new Linux account.
Second, try monitoring tcp trafic (packets) while accessing IMAP server.
Application like Wireshark can help you. You can see if it connects to
server at all.
B
John Thompson
> I have not used Fedora since version 4, and only can offer you some tips
> to help you debugging.
>
> First, try creating another, fresh user account on the problematic
> machine and set up IMAP account for it. See if it works. I don't mean
> just another Thunderbird profile, but new Linux account.
>
> Second, try monitoring tcp trafic (packets) while accessing IMAP server.
> Application like Wireshark can help you. You can see if it connects to
> server at all.
As mysteriously as it began, it has now resolved itself.
Go figure.
--
John (jo...@os2.dhs.org)
Tim Greer
That would worry me that it could pop up again without any known reason,
so be sure to post if it happens again, and try something like
wireshark at that time, as was suggested above.
--
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