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Setting Up postfix to send outgoing mail on ubuntu


By David Grant - Posted on 24 May 2007

I don't know why but this is one of those things that I find extremely annoying to set up. Mainly because it often requires installing a full-blown MTA to do a much simpler job than it was designed to do. Unfortunately, ssmtp and exim, the only simpler ones often suck (ssmtp especially which even the maintainer gave up on). What follows is how I got postfix working on my Feisty machine:

sudo apt-get install postfix
sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

Here are the options to answer in order:

"satellite" (when given the list of configuration styles)
<your normal user> (where to forward root's mail to)
<your host name>
<your ISP's smtp server>
accept default (when asked what other domains to accept mail from)
No (default is no synchronous updates on mail queue)
127.0.0.0/8 (accept default unless you know what you are doing)
0 (mailbox limit)
+ (default)
all (default)

Reload or restart postfix, then do some testing:

sudo apt-get install mailx
echo test |mail -s "test mail sent to external" me@gmail.com
echo test |mail -s "test mail sent to normal user" <normal user name>
echo test |mail -s "test mail sent to root" root

You should get an email to your external address. And if you run

mail

you should see 2 emails there for you, one that was sent to root (but was directed to you, see /etc/aliases for why) and the other that was sent to you.

To have those mails sent to an external address instead (like your me@gmail.com address) do the following:

echo me@gmail.com > ~/.forward

Update (2007-07-19): When I changed ISPs, my new ISP did not like my From: address being david@centurion (I just named it after the case model). So I had to do the following. Add this to /etc/postfix/main.cf:

smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic

Add this to /etc/postfix/generic:

@centurion      david@telus.net

I just made up an email address there to make it happy.
Don't forget to run sudo postmap /etc/postfix/generic

I've got an error on the first message. The message is't delivered and I found a mail in my local mailbox with the following error message:

Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 554 5.7.1 : Sender
address rejected: Access denied

Any idea?

Thanks in advance

I think this is your smtp server rejecting the From: address. I have a solution for this as I recently had this problem with my new ISP. I'll put the solution up soon.

Thanks very much for your article. Solved my problems. :-)

You mentioned in your postifx article that you found a fix for the address rejected issues with the mail relay. would you mind posting it?

I believe I gave the solution in the post:

Add this to /etc/postfix/main.cf:

smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic

Add this to /etc/postfix/generic:

@centurion      david@telus.net

I just made up an email address there to make it happy.
Don't forget to run sudo postmap /etc/postfix/generic

i read this topic and installed it but not finish. i can send mail from this user to another user but i can't send mail to external? what do i do to install it?

I am also having this same issue. Any help would be great.

thanks mate it worked for me

can I use it with LAMPP php program under ubuntu 8.10?

what is the minimal setup and php-ing I must perform so it will
send me an email using php (on my Lampp server with local host )? (at the first stage doesn't matter if it will
be tagged as spam on my gmail)

Thanks
Israel

Your instructions are right on!

I want my machine to e-mail me if something goes wrong with my software RAID configuration. This post was very helpful.

Ta very much ... worked out the box. 8)

Is there a way to skip postfix to send mail. I have to send mail to my cell phone when postfix is down!!!

I've been searching for this for a week now, followed your suggestions and everything worked fine!

Thanks again!

hi,
I have installed postfix, mailx.
when i sent a command line email

echo test |mail -s "test mail sent to external" shaunak1234@gmail.com

I got the email from Shaunak Chandwadkar shaun@wallpapers.no-ip.org

And when I sent it from php I got reply from
www-data www-data@wallpapers.no-ip.org

where can I change this www-data to webmaster or no-reply

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