The identities were there when I shut down one night, the next morning they had evaporated.

The pmail.ini file was lost and WinPMail built a new one.

I had an old .ini saved, but this did not resurrect the situation, I

note that the first section was as if this was a standalone

installation running with own pop/smtp whereas I have a mercury server

installation. My thought is that if I do a correct reinstall, then I

can cut and paste the relevant identity sections out of the old into

the new.

Actually all you really have to do is edit  the file to have it point to the correct home and new mail directory to get this to work.

Hi

Running on win2000 for the record. 

If I create a desktop shortcut and such with pmconfig on a workstation ( I run from pmconfig the server across the network) so that I can run PMail from the server, then running it from said shortcut always gives "The user you are attempting to 'become' (aesop) does not exist on this system." although a whole batch of them are on the server. The properties of the shortcut I  modify to give a UNC path to the server (since it defaults to C:\Pmail\Programs). It starts but bails out when trying to connect a user.

I installed a full PMail on the workstation as a multiuser installation and got that to run and pick up the user mail from the server with no problem, but for no particular reason would still like to get it to run as a server-workstation setup.

 
Am I doing something stupid or perhaps not appreciating how this is supposed to operate?

Anne


 

Not sure what your are entering for the new mail folder in pmconfig.  The server mailbox directory path to the home and new mail directory is probably the problem.  If this is c:\pmail\mail\~n then this will cause a remote system to look at their own hard drive for the mailboxes.  If you change this to \\server\volume\pmail\mail\~n then the remote systejms will look to the server rather than the local hard drive.

Thank you for your reply, Thomas.

Well, it is that blue dos program with curses action, pconfig, not pmconfig, my error

 I did have the server configuration path (UNC) and so added  the terminal \~n but to no avail. Neither did adding \~8 which now I see is what pconfig suggests. Looking in PMGATE.SYS I do not see this shown there, and in any event adding that in did not cause PMGATE.SYS to get rewritten, so wonder where that info is stored and how to make it accessible to the workstation.

No luck  :(

Anne
 

It it writing a file called PMAIL.CFG in the current directory so this means it must be started from the directory containing the WinPMail program.  The PMGATE.SYS is where the User Defined Gateway data is stored.  Could you provide the UNC path you are entering for the directories?  Here's what I use on the home system. 

Home mailbox :    [\\tstephenson\c_drive\PMAIL\MAIL\~n  ]
New mailbox  :     \\tstephenson\c_drive\PMAIL\MAIL\~n
Asynch gateway? :  N

Thomas, hi,

 I can see that I have confused matters. In my first email I should have referred to wssetup which is the utility to run on each workstation and which sets up very basic stuff including a desktop shortcut.  I ran this on my workstation and edited the resulting shortcut to refer to the full copy of Pmail on my server. Now..
 

1  I am on the slaves workstation downstairs (Athene)

2  The shortcut on Athene refers to the server upstairs (Alcyone)

3  The superuser (me) on Alcyone also runs Pmail of that is of any concern

3  The copy of pmail.cfg on Alcyone shows two C:\PMAIL\MAIL\~8  addresses, so I can see that if the shortcut refers to PMail on Alcyone then Athene is going to pick up this .cfg file and will then look on its own C drive and find no users of the names wanted because they are all on Alcyone upstairs

4  I could edit it to show \\Alcyone\C\PMAIL\MAIL\~8 .... BUT 

5  I hesitate to do so, stuff looks like it is randomly spaced on the page with little squares all over, not like an .ini file with one item per line. What if I disturb the layout, won't it all go wrong?

oh, dear, whatamess

Anne
 

You are right, if you edit this file directly it will quite possibly be completely trashed.  However, it is easy to edit the file with pconfig.exe.  You must run pconfig.exe from the same directory as the pmail.cfg file and edit the Standalone HOME and NEW mail directory path.

Thomas, hello, & thanks,

 OK, I had not done that for this

installation, in fact since I have a network installation I had ignored

the Standalone thing completely.

So from the server I ran

pconfig and edited the paths to  \\Alcyone\C\PMAIL\MAIL\~n . I checked

the .cfg file and this was now twice correctly listed there.

No success, it still gives the exact-same error.

I

also tried ~8 instead of ~n with no change (both of these are listed as

replacements for the user name in the "Reply address format" section of

the User Gateway Definition).

The standalone installation on the workstation that I am using

instead has its pmail.cfg with this same UNC path and runs, no problem.

So I suppose I should not complain, but I hate being beat.

There are a finite number of areas where I can fiddle.

1. The Properties of the desktop shortcut
2. Pconfig, the Standalone installation
3. Pconfig, the Gateway definition

I have just rechecked all three areas and can find nothing. Are there any other relevant areas of configuration to investigate.

Running Win2000 I have checked permissions on access to the

folders and all are fine. In any event the standalone installation

runs, and on the old machine that sat where this workstation is now we

had also a successful installation using the server mailboxes.

 So,

knowing the demands on your time, I have to say is there anything else

that could be the cause as I am sure 1 - 3 above are 100%

 I did

see some other posts here on this matter and can see that I am not the

first in this mess. I love Pegasus and have used it since DOS versions

without a break. I have to say that installations are always a problem,

generally I feel on account of the choices available and the

explanations given them. Not that anything said is incorrect, but maybe

across cultures the meaning does not always show clearly. I can put

some wants on the relevant list, but nothing will make me use anything

other than Pegasus. When it goes, it is the best!

My next step

will be to run wssetup on the server and see if I can get such an

installation to run from there. I'll keep you posted. 

Regards

On 16 Apr 2008 13:10 Pegasus Mail & Mercury - Automated Email <NoReply@praktit.se> wrote:

>  I did see some other posts here on this matter and can see that I am
> not the first in this mess. I love Pegasus and have used it since DOS
> versions without a break. I have to say that installations are always a
> problem, generally I feel on account of the choices available and the
> explanations given them. Not that anything said is incorrect, but maybe
> across cultures the meaning does not always show clearly. I can put
> some wants on the relevant list, but nothing will make me use anything
> other than Pegasus. When it goes, it is the best!

Here's the basic network installation of Pegasus Mail.  This is a full install of Mercury/32 and WinPMail.

1.  Install WinPmail in the multiuser mode on the "server".  Use c:\pmail
    for the program; c:\pmail\mail for the mail directories.  Create the
    users you want during the install. Verify it works as to admin user
    from the server.

2.  Run PCONFIG.exe and change the HOME and NEW mail directory
    specification to the \\server\vol\pmail\mail\~n format. Verify it
    works as the admin user.

3.  Go to the remote workstations and install a shortcut to the
    common program.

Ok, now you have the basic mail system setup.  You can send mail to
each other using Pegasus Mail.

4.  Install Mercury/32 on this same server pointing to the Pegasus
    Mail directory structure.  Use MercuryD, MercuryS, MercuryC at
    least. Use \\server\vol\mercury\queue for the mail spool directory.

5.  Point MercuryD at all of your POP3 mailboxes to download the mail
    to your Pegasus Mail user directories.

You now can send and receive Internet mail via Pegasus Mail.  The
mail is delivered to the Pegasus Mail directories automatically.  You
send mail simply but putting the output files into the Mercury/32
mail spool directory.  This is accomplished automatically with a
Pegasus Mail User Defined Gateway.

6.  If you want to use other e-mail clients, point them at the at your
    Mercury/32 host as a POP3 and SMTP host using the Pegasus Mail
    username and password to pickup the mail.

You can do a complete inbound and outbound mail archive with this
setup using a simple Mercury/32 "Always" filter that put a copy in a
users mail directory.

Thomas, hi.

 Thank you for that very clear exposition. I am not sure that 1. happened as a multiuser installation. We started off as one user on one machine and progressed from there. I will print out your reply and file it in the Pegasus folder since it is the clearest exposition of the process I have yet seen.

 That said, I ran wssetup on the server to get a workstation icon. Which operation was successful and ran Pegasus Mail on the server as it should.

 I'll have to check out the idea of a reinstall. In the meantime if a specific solution comes to hand I'll update this thread.

 Thanks once again for the continued help. How you cope with coping with people like us is beyond me!

Anne


 

Hello, Thomas,

Well, we are still struggling. I did have it running fine but all of a sudden all the identities disappeared and all the configuration items set with them (like banded windows, for instance).

The .ini file is there but it doesn't read it, and now we are  back to the dreaded "the user you are trying to 'become' does not exist on this system" message. OK, somewhere, somehow, I have really screwed up, I know it wasn't designed to not-work like this.

 I have faithfully followed all the advice that I can find in postings on the forum to no avail so am resigned to doing a reinstall. I suppose that this means I should do a 'Windows' uninstall first. I want to leave Mercury as is and hopefully have Pegasus pick up on the existing users, etc. ie minimum hassle.

 Then I should save to a safe location what files? I assume that my emails and directory structure will not be trashed, but I want to reintegrate all the existing settings for the various users and identities.

 I'm ready to go as you outlined so clearly, just hoping for a few more pearls of wisdom

Thanks
Anne

 

[quote user="Anne Wainwright"]

Hello, Thomas,

Well, we are still struggling. I did have it running fine but all of a sudden all the identities disappeared and all the configuration items set with them (like banded windows, for instance).

The .ini file is there but it doesn't read it, and now we are  back to the dreaded "the user you are trying to 'become' does not exist on this system" message. OK, somewhere, somehow, I have really screwed up, I know it wasn't designed to not-work like this.

 I have faithfully followed all the advice that I can find in postings on the forum to no avail so am resigned to doing a reinstall. I suppose that this means I should do a 'Windows' uninstall first. I want to leave Mercury as is and hopefully have Pegasus pick up on the existing users, etc. ie minimum hassle.

 Then I should save to a safe location what files? I assume that my emails and directory structure will not be trashed, but I want to reintegrate all the existing settings for the various users and identities.

 I'm ready to go as you outlined so clearly, just hoping for a few more pearls of wisdom

Thanks
Anne

[/quote]

If you are having the "user not found", 99.9% of the time this means the NEW mail directory spec in the pmail.cfg file is incorrect.  Go you the winpm-32.exe directory and run pconfig.exe and make sure you have a valid mail directory spec.  When running netwroked this should be \\server\volume\pmail\mail\~n  if you installed to c:\pmail and the mail directory is c:\pmail\mail.

FWIW, when the identities disappeared then you probably lost the pmail.ini file.

Hello, Thomas,

 Thanks for your input.

Unfortunately this is the 0.1% case as following previous instructions I have had that correct for a long time, and it is still correct.

 The identities were there when I shut down one night, the next morning they had evaporated.

 I had an old .ini saved, but this did not resurrect the situation, I note that the first section was as if this was a standalone installation running with own pop/smtp whereas I have a mercury server installation. My thought is that if I do a correct reinstall, then I can cut and paste the relevant identity sections out of the old into the new.

Maybe this coming weekend, I'll be sure to tell you what goes wrong  ;)

Regards
Anne