Dovecot login and account issues

[Andrew Falanga]

Ok, there's something apparently not quite right in my understanding.  I have 
the following log entries in /var/log/maillog for a login attempt by a 
virtual user into my new dovecot system:

Dec 28 17:48:07 whitbap dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<jdunkin>, 
method=PLAIN, rip=71.221.173.206, lip=192.168.2.23
Dec 28 17:48:07 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): 
mkdir_parents(/var/mail/vmail//mail) failed: Not a directory
Dec 28 17:48:07 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): Failed to create storage with 
data: mbox:/var/mail/vmail//mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/jdunkin
Dec 28 17:48:07 whitbap dovecot: child 34067 (pop3) returned error 89
Dec 28 17:48:52 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): 
mkdir_parents(/var/mail/vmail//mail) failed: Not a directory
Dec 28 17:48:52 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): Failed to create storage with 
data: mbox:/var/mail/vmail//mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/jdunkin
Dec 28 17:48:52 whitbap dovecot: child 34070 (pop3) returned error 89


Now, in my /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf file I have this:

mail_location = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u

Which seems to be correct.  Why then is dovecot trying to make a mail 
directory in /var/mail/vmail?  (vmail is the virtual user.)

Also, please assist in my understanding of this one.  I currently have (in 
dovecot.conf):

auto default {
    mechanisms = plain digest-md5
    # there is much other stuff here, I'm only adding what isn't commented
    # hope it's relative

  passdb sql {
    # Path for SQL configuration file, see doc/dovecot-sql-example.conf
    args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
  }

  userdb sql {
    # Path for SQL configuration file, see doc/dovecot-sql-example.conf
    args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
  }

  user = vmail
}

What is the difference between digest-md5 and cram-md5?  I've read a  little 
bit about digest md5 from the dovecot wiki and it looks like the digest is 
supposed to be of a string like this (using one of my virtual users):

md5 -s whitbap at whitneybaptist.org::pass

Is this true?  If so, when the users login, they'll send <user at domain.com> as 
the user id?

If this isn't true (and this is how I currently have it configured), I simply 
made a hash as follows:

md5 -s <password>

And then inserted into my postgresql database a string in this format:

{PLAIN-MD5}<hash_here>

This isn't working so what did I do wrong?

Any help on resolving these two issues is greatly appreciated.

Andy