Apple OS X 10.8 Server.app was the worst move I ever made. The mail server issues in 10.8 Server.app were well known and I was too impatient to wait for fixes at the time of it’s launch. I’m used to running at the low level of the unix core, configuring mail servers and web servers manually so when I went to the GUI goodness of Server.app I was, to say the least, out of my element. I couldn’t leave the manual settings alone, while Server.app insisted on re-managing things for me. Add to that, every Server.app update tended to break things I’d previously configured.

I played this cat and mouse game with Server.app until finally any combination mail, postfix and sendmail was completely broken. Short of a clean install I was dead in the water as far as a mail server was concerned. Even the techs at Apple had no advice.

Having been a fan of msmtp on my Linux servers I figured, why not. Homebrew to the rescue…

1. Install msmtp via homebrew (Terminal) [NOTE: Don't have homebrew?]:

   $ brew install msmtp --with-macosx-keyring
   

2. Create or edit your ~/.mailrc to include:

   set sendmail=/usr/local/bin/msmtp
   

3. Create or edit your ~/.msmtprc to include (replace with your credentials):

   # Example for a user configuration file
   
   # Set default values for all following accounts.
   defaults
   tls on
   logfile ~/.msmtp.log
   
   # A gmail service
   account [email protected]
   host smtp.gmail.com
   port 587
   protocol smtp
   auth on
   from [email protected]
   user [email protected]
   tls on
   tls_starttls on
   
   # Your mac should have certificates in /etc/certificates/
   # Pick one, if it doesn't work, try another one.
   # If you have no certicicates there then Google it.
   tls_trust_file /etc/certificates/Server Fallback SSL Certificate.5522E4EEF50C3C50FC549364EA761E7E3C4C3503.cert.pem
   
   # Set a default account
   # You need to set a default account for Mail
   account default : [email protected]
   

4. Give your ~/.msmtprc the right permissions (Terminal):

   $ chmod 0600 ~/.msmtprc
   

5. Create a new password item in Keychain Access (Keychain Access > File > New Password Item) with the following data (replace with your credentials):

   Keychain Item Name: smtp://smtp.gmail.com
   Account name: [email protected]
   Password: secret
   

6. To test, run the following command (Terminal) [NOTE: click "Allways allow when the Keychain authorization request pops up"]:

   $ echo "Hello world" | Mail -s "msmtp test at `date`" [email protected]
   

SOURCES: msmtp, a free tool to send email from Terminal, send eBooks to your kindle, Use Mutt with Gmail

Tags: gmail | mail | msmtp | postfix | sendmail | terminal

If you use lubuntu–pure lubuntu, not just the lubuntu desktop environment installed over top of an Ubuntu install–then you’ve probably found that installing the proprietary cedarview driver for GMA3600 support can leave your GUI desktop unusable (black, dead, unbootable).

Here is the trick for getting things to work.

1. *Before* installing the driver, make a backup copy of lightdm.conf. In Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T or Applications > Accesories > LXTerminal), enter the following:

sudo cp /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.bak

2. Activate the driver from Applications > Preferences > Additional Drivers.
3. After a while your screen will likely go black and nothing you do will bring it back. Give it another minute or two, then switch to console mode by typing Ctrl+Alt+F1
4. Log in to console mode with your credentials and type the folling:

sudo cp /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.bak /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

5. Then reboot by typing:

sudo reboot -h now

Now when you login you’ll have a working GUI and decent support for the GMA3600.

Tags: 3600 | cedar | ceradview | gma | lubuntu | tree

Netflix Jocelyn: Hi Adam!

me: I pay for this service yet I can’t watch on my Linux laptop. Why?

Netflix Jocelyn: Oh no, so about the Linux, we have definitely been receiving a lot of feedback from customers with this program, and believe me, Netflix is considering adding Linux as a supported Netflix program. I would say just be a little patient a bit longer, and keep watching for Netflix to add it. I can go ahead and forward your concern for you as well.

me: Chrome OS is Linux and Netflix supports Chrome OS. So there is already support for Linux on a programmatic basis. So the excuse is thin to say the least.

me: Mac is Unix (a common derivative also used for Linux) so again, the foundation is there.
me: There is no valid excuse, the programs are written already.

me: It’s a matter of Netflix allowing something to happpen on a DRM side of things.

me: But please add my name to the list of annoyed paying customers.

Netflix Jocelyn: I totally understand,that the foundation is there, at the moment Netflix has not partnered with Linux, I will go ahead and add you to the list. Its a high demand on getting Linux for Netflix.

What a headache it’s been to get my mail server up and running — consistently — on Mac OS X 10.8! I guess the powers-that-be at Apple felt that it’d be a good idea to shift from /etc/postfix/ to /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/ because… I don’t know, it has a proprietary ring to it perhaps? Who knows? Whatever the case it looks as though the transition was only partially complete, in that not all the paths were written and not all the directories were made.

If you’re like me and you’ve tried to strong arm control back over to /etc/postix then you’ve likely been just as frustrated that every time Apple updates the Server.app or serveradmin CLI (now burred deep within the Server.app, worth finding and adding to your $PATH) then all your s#!t breaks and you have to go back and do it again. Yeah for Apple Draconianism.

Since I can’t beat them, I might as well join them. So here are the steps to get Gmail piping out messages a la mail/sendmail/postfix from your command line with Mountain Lion 10.8, migrating from configurations in /etc/postfix/ to /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/.

Assumptions

I assume a few things here:

1. You have Server.app installed on your Mac.
2. You’re comfortable in the command line.
3. serveradmin have been buried recently. I suggest you add /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin to your $PATH.
4. When I say “edit such-an-such file”, I assume that you have sudoer privileges and and an editor (VIM, Nano, TextMate, Sublime Text 2, etc…) that can edit these system files. In all of these examples I use subl for SublimeText, so substitute your favorite editor there.
5. Backup, backup, backup. Don’t edit any of these files without making a backup copy first.
6. Since you’re here, let’s assume that you already know why you want to do this and how to use command-line mail.

How to

1. Stop the mail and postfix services:

   $ sudo serveradmin stop mail
   $ sudo postfix stop

2. Let’s make sure you have the spool directory (one of those folders not originally created with the original release of the OS X 10.8 Server.app):

   $ sudo mkdir -p /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool

3. Open the postfix launch daemon:

   $ sudo subl /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist

4. Replace the plist contents with:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
       <dict>
       <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
       <true/>
       <key>Label</key>
       <string>org.postfix.master</string>
       <key>OnDemand</key>
       <false/>
       <key>Program</key>
       <string>/usr/libexec/postfix/master</string>
       <key>ProgramArguments</key>
       <array>
               <string>master</string>
       </array>
       <key>QueueDirectories</key>
       <array>
               <string>/Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool/maildrop</string>
       </array>
       </dict>
   </plist>

5. Unload/reload the plist:

   $ sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist
   $ sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist

6. Open the main.cf:

   $ sudo subl /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/main.cf

7. Find and replace all instances of /etc/postfix/ with /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/

8. Add the following lines to the bottom:

   # my main.cf edits
   relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
   smtp_generic_maps = hash:/Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/generic
   smtp_tls_loglevel=1
   smtp_tls_security_level=encrypt
   smtp_sasl_auth_enable=yes
   smtp_sasl_password_maps=hash:/Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/sasl/passwd
   smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
   smtp_use_tls = yes

9. Find out who you are:

   $ whoami

10. Open the aliases file:

    $ sudo subl /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/aliases

11. Find the line #root: you, uncomment it and replace “you” with the results of whoami:

    # Person who should get root's mail. Don't receive mail as root!
    root: adam 

12. Initialize the alias database:

    $ sudo newaliases

13. Find out your machine name:

    $ hostname

14. Open the generic file:

    $ sudo subl /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/generic

15. Add these lines to the end (with your credentials in place of whoami and hostname):

    # my generic edits
    whoami@hostname [email protected]
    @hostname [email protected]

16. Create a password file:

    $ sudo mkdir -p /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/sasl 
    $ sudo subl /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/sasl/passwd

17. Add the following (with your credentials):

    [smtp.gmail.com]:587 [email protected]:yourpassword

18. Set postfix permissions:

    $ sudo postfix set-permissions
    $ sudo postmap /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/sasl/passwd

19. Start the mail services:

    $ sudo postfix start 
    $ sudo serveradmin start mail

Tags: 10.8 | gmail | lion | mail | mountain | os x | postfix | sendmail

“Mail is one of the hardest services to manage. Actually, mail is pretty simple in and of itself: there’s protocols people use to access their mail (such as IMAP and POP), protocols used to communicate between mail servers and send mail (SMTP, SMTPS)  and then there’s a database of mail and user information. In Mount Lion Server, all of these are represented by a single ON button, so it really couldn’t be easier. But then there’s the ecoysystem and the evil spammers.” — via Setting Up The Mail Service in Mountain Lion Server | Krypted.com.

Tags: lion | mail | mountain | server | service

“Mac OSX comes with the postfix MTA, which is a fully featured SMTP server. Under normal circumstances, there is usually no need to enable or configure this software, as most email access is usually done via GUI clients such as the Mail.app – which uses the POP/IMAP and SMTP settings to connect with the email service provider.” — via sendmail program « /usr.

Tags: lion | mail | mountain | postfix | sendmail

“Long before Internet Explorer became the browser everyone loves to hate, it was the driving force of innovation on the Internet. Sometimes it’s hard to remember all of the good that Internet Explorer did before Internet Explorer 6 became the scourge of web developers everywhere. Believe it or not, Internet Explorer 4-6 is heavily responsible for web development as we know it today…” — via The innovations of Internet Explorer | NCZOnline.

“go is a small shell command for changing directories quickly. Typically you have a set of directories that you work in. Typing out the names of those dirs in full can be tedious. go allows you to give a shortcut name for a directory…” — via go-tool – a command-line tool for quick directory switching – Google Project Hosting.

Tags: cli | command | go | go-tool | line | tool

“Sublime Text is an awesome text editor. If you’ve never heard of it, you should check it out right now.I’ve made this tutorial because there’s no installer for the Linux versions of Sublime Text. While that’s not a real problem, I feel there is a cleaner way to go around this. Also, this post will show you how to integrate Sublime Text to Unity which, I’m glad to report, has now matured into a fully functional user interface.” — via How to install Sublime Text 2 on Ubuntu 12.04 Unity | Technoreply.

Tags: linux | sublime | text

I know this is older, but I wanted to bookmark the article for future reference. This site is just the street from my house.

“A few hundred people lived in long houses, made pottery and grew corn in a medium sized village on the banks of Strasburg Creek that was thriving 100 years before Samuel de Champlain set foot in Ontario.” — via 201010225365 | Aboriginal village discovered on Strasburg Creek