Pop3 Died with no notice HELP!!!

Ok, here is the deal, I am running REdhat 8.0 with all the latest updates, I am using Qmail with vpopmail as my mail servers. Pop3 server just quit at about 7:45pm 2 weeks ago, no errors just quit, smtp still works, everything else still works. Xinetd isnt starting the pop3 server like it should but the xinetd.log has nothin as far as errors.

This is what the service file looks like for xinetd

service pop-3
{
log_type = FILE /var/log/xinetd.log
log_on_success = HOST
log_on_failure = HOST RECORD
port = 110
bind = 66.101.58.66
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
user = root
server = /var/qmail/bin/qmail-popup
server_args = domain.net /home/vpopmail/bin/vchkpw /var/qmail/bin/qmail-pop3d Maildir
type = UNLISTED
wait = no
}

Any ideas, suggestions or anyhting else would be welcome, thanks.

did u change anything that could have caused it to stop? check ur logs

Nope, I didnt change a thing, all of the config was done weeks before, nothing has been altered since. Which logs would I check?

well if anyone else can help i need to solve this asap, maybe something i should look into or something... anyone?

you should check /var/log/maillog (or whatever it is on your system) for any messages.

ok, i checked maillog, all of them maillog and maillog.1 - maillog.4 and they were all blank, i did check /var/log/messages and foudn the following:


Jun 8 13:20:14 mail sshd(pam_unix)[20417]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Jun 8 13:23:30 mail xinetd[620]: Starting reconfiguration
Jun 8 13:23:30 mail xinetd[620]: Bad log_on_failure flag: RECORD [line=5]
Jun 8 13:23:30 mail xinetd[620]: Error parsing attribute log_on_failure - DISABLING SERVICE [line=5]
Jun 8 13:23:30 mail xinetd[620]: readjusting service sgi_fam
Jun 8 13:23:31 mail xinetd[620]: readjusting service ftp
Jun 8 13:23:31 mail xinetd[620]: Reconfigured: new=0 old=2 dropped=0 (services)
Jun 8 13:32:46 mail sshd(pam_unix)[20417]: session closed for user root
Jun 8 13:32:51 mail sshd[31832]: Accepted password for root from 12.217.72.112 port 2157
Jun 8 13:32:51 mail sshd(pam_unix)[31832]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Jun 8 13:33:54 mail xinetd[620]: Starting reconfiguration
Jun 8 13:33:54 mail xinetd[620]: Bad log_on_failure flag: RECORD [line=5]
Jun 8 13:33:54 mail xinetd[620]: Error parsing attribute log_on_failure - DISABLING SERVICE [line=5]
Jun 8 13:33:55 mail xinetd[620]: readjusting service sgi_fam
Jun 8 13:33:56 mail xinetd[620]: readjusting service ftp
Jun 8 13:33:56 mail xinetd[620]: Reconfigured: new=0 old=2 dropped=0 (services)
Jun 8 18:49:48 mail rpc.statd[485]: gethostbyname error for ^X÷ÿ¿^X÷ÿ¿^Y÷ÿ¿^Y÷ÿ¿^Z÷ÿ¿^Z÷ÿ¿^[÷ÿ¿^[÷ÿ¿%8x%8x%8x%8x%8x%8x%8x%8$
Jun 8 18:59:42 mail sshd(pam_unix)[31832]: session closed for user root


not sure if this means anything but the liens it refers to are in the xinetd services file for pop3....... any ideas?

i also noticed this in past files, this was durring a restart, the system was booting and this was the messages fomr xinetd:

May 22 12:11:06 mail xinetd[620]: Bad log_on_failure flag: RECORD [line=5]
May 22 12:11:06 mail xinetd[620]: Error parsing attribute log_on_failure - DISABLING SERVICE [line=5]
May 22 12:11:08 mail xinetd[620]: xinetd Version 2.3.11 started with libwrap loadavg options compiled in.
May 22 12:11:08 mail xinetd[620]: Started working: 2 available services
May 22 12:11:09 mail xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded


any ideas on why its not workin right, and/or how to fix it?

Well going by that it has some issue with line 5 log_on_failure = HOST RECORD

Now i have done some searches and all the examples all have the same

Have a look in the docs and try some other values for that option

ok, well i searched for the error error parseing and i found that someone else had the smae problem, since the defaults are set in the xinetd.conf file i commentted them out on the services fie, and poof, i got pop3 again, i think about it now and there was a redhat rpm update to xinetd a while back, aroudn the smae time that it quit, i'm guessing they dropped suport foir HOST as a value, not sure all I know is it works now

cool

glad things worked out in the end

i swear sometimes linux updates are just as bad as windows updates, 3 times now i have had to go back and fix something after an update!?!?! Makes me worry about updating my system