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<title>14 Troubleshooting</title>
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<h1><a name="SECTION0011400000000000000000"></a><a name="troubleshooting"></a>
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If you encounter problems with running Mailman, first check the question and
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answer section below. If your problem is not covered there, check the
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<a class="ulink" href="http://www.list.org/help.html"
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>online help</a>, including the
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<a class="ulink" href="http://www.list.org/faq.html"
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<a class="ulink" href="http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py"
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>interactive FAQ wizard</a>.
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Also check for errors in your syslog files, your mail and web server log files
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and in Mailman's <span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/logs/error</span> file. If you're still
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having problems, you should send a message to the
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<span class="email">mailman-users@python.org</span> mailing list<a name="tex2html7"
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href="#foot614"><sup>7</sup></a>; see
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<a class="url" href="http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users">http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users</a> for more
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Be sure to including information on your operating system, which version of
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Python you're using, and which version of Mailman you're installing.
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Here is a list of some common questions and answers:
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> All Mailman web pages give a 404 File not found
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<strong>Solution:</strong> Your web server has not been set up properly for
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handling Mailman's CGI programs. Make sure you have:
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<li>configured the web server to give permissions to
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<span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/cgi-bin</span>
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<li>restarted the web server properly.
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Consult your web server's documentation for instructions on how to do
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> All Mailman web pages give an "Internal Server
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<strong>Solution:</strong> The likely problem is that you are using the wrong
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user or group for the CGI scripts. Check your web server's log files.
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If you see a line like
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<div class="verbatim"><pre>
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Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99
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you will need to reinstall Mailman, specifying the proper CGI group id,
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as described in the <a name="building"></a> section.
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying the
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<strong>Solution:</strong> You probably didn't add the necessary aliases to the
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system alias database, or you didn't properly integrate Mailman with
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your mail server. Perhaps you didn't update the alias database, or your
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system requires you to run <b class="program">newaliases</b> explicitly. Refer to
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your server specific instructions in the <a href="mail-server.html#mail-server">6</a> section.
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying,
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``unknown mailer error''.
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<strong>Solution:</strong> The likely problem is that you are using the wrong
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user or group id for the mail wrappers. Check your mail server's log
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files; if you see a line like
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<div class="verbatim"><pre>
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Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99
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you will need to reinstall Mailman, specifying the proper mail group id
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as described in the <a name="building"></a> section.
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> I use Postfix as my mail server and the mail wrapper
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programs are logging complaints about the wrong GID.
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<strong>Solution:</strong> Make sure the <span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/data/aliases.db</span>
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file is user owned by <code>mailman</code> (or whatever user name you used
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in the <b class="program">configure</b> command). If this file is not user owned by
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<code>mailman</code>, Postfix will not run the mail programs as the correct
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> I use Sendmail as my mail server, and when I send mail
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to the list, I get back mail saying, ``sh: mailman not available for
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<strong>Solution:</strong> Your system uses the Sendmail restricted shell
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(smrsh). You need to configure smrsh by creating a symbolic link from
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the mail wrapper (<span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/mail/mailman</span>) to the directory
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identifying executables allowed to run under smrsh.
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Some common names for this directory are <span class="file">/var/admin/sm.bin</span>,
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<span class="file">/usr/admin/sm.bin</span> or <span class="file">/etc/smrsh</span>.
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Note that on Debian Linux, the system makes <span class="file">/usr/lib/sm.bin</span>,
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which is wrong, you will need to create the directory
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<span class="file">/usr/admin/sm.bin</span> and add the link there. Note further any
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aliases <b class="program">newaliases</b> spits out will need to be adjusted to point
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to the secure link to the wrapper.
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<li><strong>Problem:</strong> I messed up when I called <b class="program">configure</b>. How
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do I clean things up and re-install?
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<strong>Solution:</strong>
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<div class="verbatim"><pre>
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% ./configure --with-the-right-options
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<br><hr><h4>Footnotes</h4>
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<dt><a name="foot614">... list</a><A
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href="troubleshooting.html#tex2html7"><sup>7</sup></a></dt>
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<dd>You must subscribe to
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this mailing list in order to post to it, but the mailing list's archives are
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.1, documentation updated on April 21, 2008.</span>
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