[FC4] Thunderbird Inbox gone [solved]

[Paul Howarth]

On Tue, 2005-09-06 at 09:00 +0200, Bart Couvreur wrote:
> On 9/5/05, M. Lewis <_fedoralist_ at cajuninc.com> wrote:
> > M. Lewis wrote:
> > > FedoraCore4
> > > T'bird version 1.0.6-1.1.fc4 (20050720)
> > >
> > > I've read numerous other postings about mail disappearing. I've searched
> > > the FAQ as well as the forum at the Thunderbird help. I've tried all the
> > > steps outlined in the 'mail disappearing' topic on the T'bird forum.
> > > Still I have no Inbox.
> > >
> > > The scenario:
> > >
> > > Today I needed to reboot my machine to install a new kernel. T'bird was
> > > working fine. I had about 70 or so emails in my inbox. Last night I was
> > > working on cleaning the inbox up and moving messages out of there.
> > >
> > > Rebooted machine. Brought up T'bird. Went to the inbox folder and it was
> > > empty. Shutdown T'bird, started it again. Inbox is still empty.
> > >
> > > If I go to my profile/ImapMail/ I cannot find any files or directories
> > > called Inbox. It apparently somehow magically was completely deleted.
> > >
> > > I've sent messages to myself from other accounts. I can not receive mail
> > > now. I suspect the reason is the inbox is gone.
> > >
> > > If I click on another folder in T'bird (other than Inbox) then click on
> > > Inbox again, I see in the bottom left of the screen "Opening Folder..."
> > > but of course nothing happens.
> > >
> > > I'm very suspicious of some issue with IMAP, though Dovecot seems to be
> > > running fine. I set T'bird to check mail every 1 minute. If I do 'tail
> > > -f /var/log/maillog | grep imap' I DO NOT see T'bird logging in every
> > > minute. I see it only when I start T'bird.
> > >
> > > If I send new message to myself, I can see it in /var/spool/mailboxname.
> > >
> > > 1) Any clues as to why this happened?
> > > 2) Any clues how to recover the messages that were in the Inbox?
> > > 3) Any clues how to prevent this from happening again? I suspect the
> > > answer to this is have very small Inbox. As I stated earlier, I was
> > > working on that last night. Guess I didn't get to it quickly enough.
> > >
> > > I posted this on the Thunderbird help forum and I did get some answers
> > > from one fellow. Unfortunately, he was a M$ user and just gave me the
> > > standard spiel about things I had already tried.
> > >
> > > Thanks for any ideas about how to proceed.
> > >
> > > M
> > >
> > 
> > Good ole Paul had the key:
> > 
> > http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=fedora-selinux-list&m=112541415121689&w=2
> > 
> > This solved the problem of not being able to 'receive' new mail with
> > T'bird. Of course it had nothing to do (I don't think) with why T'bird
> > deleted my Inbox in the first place.
> > 
> > Thanks for the suggestions guys.
> > 
> > Mike
> 
> Just one question: I have the same problem, where do I have to add
> this line (allow dovecot_t mail_spool_t:file write;). I'm a newbie
> with selinux!

You need to have the SELinux policy sources installed first:

# yum install selinux-policy-targeted-sources
# cd /etc/selinux/targeted/src/policy/

Create a local rules file domains/misc/local.te containing the rule(s)
you want to add:

# echo 'allow dovecot_t mail_spool_t:file write;' >
domains/misc/local.te

Then try out the new policy:
# make reload

There is useful information on customising policy in the Apache FC3
SELinux FAQ at http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-apache-fc3/

Paul.
-- 
Paul Howarth <paul at city-fan.org>