Sol10, Sendmail, localhost and mailx

[d...@snakebrook.com]

Hello, I have a Solaris 10 01/06 machine and having difficulties with
sendmail. Basically seemingly refuses to the connect SMTP machine for
the delivery of messages. It always starts out by using localhost and
then some oter SMTP server that it has no business attempting to
contact.

I am attempting to do the following:

$ mailx 11122...@vtext.com < /tmp/somefile

>From a machine on te comcast network.

But the mail never gets delivered. So I attempt to run sendmail
directly to see what is happening. I am running sendmail as follows:

I am on a comcast network attempting to send a message to the vtext
network:

$ sendmail -X /tmp/sm.log -fse...@comcast.net 11122...@vtext.com <
/tmp/somefile

And what I see in the sm.log file is it connecting to the following
SMTP servers:

# grep -i connect sm.log
08098 >>> 5083976767@vtext.com... Connecting to [127.0.0.1] via
relay...
08098 === CONNECT [127.0.0.1]
08098 <<< 050 <11122...@vtext.com>... Connecting to smtpsp.vtext.com.
via esmtp...
08098 >>> 050 <11122...@vtext.com>... Connecting to smtpsp.vtext.com.
via esmtp...
08098 >>> Closing connection to [127.0.0.1]
08098 <<< 221 2.0.0 aspen.comcast.net closing connection
08098 >>> 221 2.0.0 aspen.comcast.net closing connection

As you can see, it first attempts to route the message it to localhost,
then it attempts to send the message through smpt.vtext.com when it
should be using smtp.comcast.net.

Configuring sendmail is such a pain sometimes.

I placed the following in sendmail.cf:

DSsmtp.comcast.net

And the following in the /etc/hosts file:

192.168.99.8 aspen aspen.comcast.net

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Jack

[Mark]

Hopefully this will help :

https://www-s.acm.uiuc.edu/wiki/space/Setting+up+sendmail+on+Solaris+10

Just replace the "FEATURE(`msp', `clortho.acm.uiuc.edu')" line with one
defining the mailhost you want to use.

-Mark

[d...@snakebrook.com]

Thanks fro the reply. I tried this but sending mail via 'mailx' still
does not work. It doesn't bounce, but yet the mail just never arrives
at the destination.

Running sendmail directly I can see that it's no longer connecting to
localhost. In fact, from what I can see in the logs, it looks like te
mail was sent successfully when sendmail connects to smpt.comcast.net.
However, the mail never arrives at the destination.

Using /usr/dt/bin/dtmail connecting to the same exact smpt.comcast.net
server and the mail is delivered properly. Instantly in fact.

Sendmail seems broken to me on Soalris 10.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks, Jack

[d...@snakebrook.com]

Actually, this will work if and only if I run sendmail directly as
root.

mailx does not work. mailx does route all outgoing mail via sendmail
right?

Jack

[Shay]

Are you using sendmail version 8.12.x? If so, are you running sendmail
in daemon mode? There are some peculiarities to getting 8.12.0+ working
properly as it needs to connect to localhost first to transmit mail. If
you can post your version number, it would be easier to diagnose the
problem.

[d...@snakebrook.com]

yep:

# /usr/lib/sendmail -d0.1
Version 8.13.4+Sun
Compiled with: DNSMAP LDAPMAP LOG MAP_REGEX MATCHGECOS MILTER MIME7TO8
MIME8TO7 NAMED_BIND NDBM NETINET NETINET6 NETUNIX NEWDB
NIS
NISPLUS PIPELINING SCANF STARTTLS TCPWRAPPERS USERDB
USE_LDAP_INIT XDEBUG

============ SYSTEM IDENTITY (after readcf) ============
(short domain name) $w = aspen
(canonical domain name) $j = aspen.comcast.net
(subdomain name) $m = comcast.net
(node name) $k = aspen
========================================================

[Shay]

Yes. mailx uses sendmail for delivery. Just a quick check as it happens
to everyone occasionally - have you restarted sendmail since modifying
sendmail.cf? It seems to work properly for you up till it is supposed
to use the mail relay. And you mentioned it worked when invoking
sendmail directly. The connection to the loopback is supposed to happen
for v 8.12.0+ as the mail is handed off to the MTA part of sendmail
delivery. The server connection to smtpsp.vtext.com is where things go
bad. smtpsp.vtext.com is the mail exchanger for vtext.com. It should
have been the next hop for your message after it arrived at the mail
relay smtp.comcast.net. Instead, you appear to have bypassed the
relayer to attempt direct delivery. Being able to run sendmail manually
for proper delivery leads me to believe the currently running daemon is
not aware of the config change yet. If you've already restarted the
daemon, do so again and examine /var/adm/messages for any errors
reading the config on startup.

[d...@snakebrook.com]

What I''ve had to do for a number of reasons is reinstall Solaris 10. I
think that the machine is configured better. Sendmail does work either
running it directly or as root. That is good. And I am glad to say now
that mailx is working again too --- for domains other than comcast.net.
Will post details later, but things are much better now.

Thank you all for your help so far ...

Jack