SMTP Error (): Authentication failed

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Ubuntu Linux 20.04.6
Virtualmin version 7.20.2
hello joe ive tried all possible solutions but its still saying authentication failed see my error.log:[07-Sep-2024 22:35:02 +0100]: SMTP Error: Authentication failure: mail.financetofinance.com
PIPELINING
SIZE 10240000
ETRN
STARTTLS
ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
8BITMIME
DSN
SMTPUTF8
CHUNKING (Code: 250) in /home/financetofinance/domains/wc.financetofinance.com/public_html/program/lib/Roundcube/rcube.php on line 1794 (POST /?_task=mail&_unlock=loading1725744902096&_framed=1&_action=send)
so what do i do

i ran /etc/postfix/master.cf and got : root@mail:~# bash /etc/postfix/master.cf
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 12: smtp: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 41: pickup: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 42: cleanup: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 43: qmgr: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 45: tlsmgr: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 46: rewrite: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 47: bounce: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 48: defer: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 49: trace: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 50: verify: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 51: flush: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 52: proxymap: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 53: proxywrite: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 54: smtp: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 55: relay: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 56: -o: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 58: showq: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 59: error: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 60: retry: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 61: discard: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 62: local: can only be used in a function
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 63: virtual: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 64: lmtp: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 65: anvil: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 66: scache: command not found
postfix/postlog: unix-dgram n - n - 1 postlogd
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 81: maildrop: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 82: -d: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 113: uucp: command not found
/etc/postfix/master.cf: line 114: syntax error near unexpected token (' /etc/postfix/master.cf: line 114: flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$s ender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient)’

You need to look at the mail log (/var/log/mail.log) or at the journal for the postfix unit (journalctl -fu postfix) while you try to send mail. You can post the relevant entries here, and we can help guide you.

I don’t know what you’re trying to show with the stuff you’ve pasted here. We need actual errors from the relevant service log.

Usually, authentication errors are as simple as using the wrong username and/or password. So, look at the Edit Users page and make sure you are actually using a real username and not something you guessed.

There’s also a button on the Edit Users page labeled “Show Email Client Settings” which shows you an example of all of the settings you need to set when configuring a mail client.

Finally, try connecting with a regular mail client, like Thunderbird, to see if the problem is something broken in RoundCube (maybe missing dependencies or whatever). Narrow down the problem before trying to solve it. I get the impression from your PMs to me that you’re doing a bunch of random stuff, taking a shotgun approach to solving a problem you haven’t even identified yet. That’s a recipe for making things worse. Isolate and identify the problem(s), and then try to solve them. Not the other way around. If you’re editing configuration files before you even know what’s wrong, you’re almost certainly making a mess.

sorry for the confusion /var/log/mail.log it says no such file directory

ubuntu@mail:~$ journalctl -fu postfix
Sep 06 10:00:18 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopped Postfix Mail Transport Agent.
Sep 06 10:00:18 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopping Postfix Mail Transport Agent…
Sep 06 10:00:22 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Starting Postfix Mail Transport Agent…
Sep 06 10:00:22 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Finished Postfix Mail Transport Agent.
Sep 06 10:55:15 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Reloading Postfix Mail Transport Agent…
Sep 06 10:55:15 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Reloaded Postfix Mail Transport Agent.
Sep 06 11:36:04 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: postfix.service: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 06 11:36:04 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopped Postfix Mail Transport Agent.
Sep 06 11:36:08 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Starting Postfix Mail Transport Agent…
Sep 06 11:36:08 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Finished Postfix Mail Transport Agent.

I told you how to look at the journal, as well. Modern Linux distributions don’t have logs for most services anymore, it all goes to the journal, which you can view with journalctl or with the System Logs module in Webmin.

Sep 07 23:24:25 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/anvil[1199656]: statistics: max cache size 2 at Sep 7 23:22:06
Sep 07 23:24:29 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203138]: connect from unknown[94.141.120.150]
Sep 07 23:24:29 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203138]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:24:29 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203138]: disconnect from unknown[94.141.120.150] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 quit=1 commands=2/3
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopping User Manager for UID 1002…
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Stopped target Main User Target.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Stopped target Basic System.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Stopped target Paths.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Stopped target Sockets.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Stopped target Timers.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed GnuPG network certificate management daemon.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (access for web browsers).
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed debconf communication socket.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Closed REST API socket for snapd user session agent.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Removed slice User Application Slice.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Reached target Shutdown.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Finished Exit the Session.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203109]: Reached target Exit the Session.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1203110]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session closed for user financetofinance
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: user@1002.service: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopped User Manager for UID 1002.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopping User Runtime Directory /run/user/1002…
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: run-user-1002.mount: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: user-runtime-dir@1002.service: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Stopped User Runtime Directory /run/user/1002.
Sep 07 23:24:31 mail.financetofinance.com systemd[1]: Removed slice User Slice of UID 1002.
Sep 07 23:24:32 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:32 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:24:32 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:32 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3
Sep 07 23:24:41 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:41 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:24:42 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:42 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3
Sep 07 23:24:48 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:48 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:24:49 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:49 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3
Sep 07 23:24:55 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:55 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:24:55 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:24:55 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3
Sep 07 23:25:00 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtp[1203223]: fatal: specify a password table via the smtp_sasl_password_maps' configuration parameter Sep 07 23:25:01 mail.financetofinance.com CRON[1203228]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=0) Sep 07 23:25:01 mail.financetofinance.com CRON[1203229]: (root) CMD (/etc/webmin/status/monitor.pl >/dev/null 2>&1) Sep 07 23:25:01 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/master[782075]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtp pid 1203223 exit status 1 Sep 07 23:25:01 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/master[782075]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtp: bad command startup -- throttling Sep 07 23:25:02 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:02 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:03 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:03 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:03 mail.financetofinance.com CRON[1203228]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user root Sep 07 23:25:09 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:09 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:10 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:10 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:17 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:17 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:17 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:17 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:26 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:26 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:26 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:26 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:35 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:35 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:35 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:35 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:41 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: connect from localhost[127.0.0.1] Sep 07 23:25:41 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:41 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: warning: xsasl_cyrus_server_get_mechanism_list: no applicable SASL mechanisms Sep 07 23:25:41 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1199653]: fatal: no SASL authentication mechanisms Sep 07 23:25:42 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/master[782075]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtpd pid 1199653 exit status 1 Sep 07 23:25:44 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:44 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:45 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:45 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:51 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:51 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:52 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:52 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:25:58 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:58 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused Sep 07 23:25:58 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50] Sep 07 23:25:58 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3 Sep 07 23:26:01 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtp[1203394]: fatal: specify a password table via the smtp_sasl_password_maps’ configuration parameter
Sep 07 23:26:02 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/master[782075]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtp pid 1203394 exit status 1
Sep 07 23:26:02 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/master[782075]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtp: bad command startup – throttling
Sep 07 23:26:05 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:26:05 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:26:06 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:26:06 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3
Sep 07 23:26:12 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: connect from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:26:12 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: warning: connect to Milter service inet:127.0.0.1:8891: Connection refused
Sep 07 23:26:13 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: lost connection after AUTH from unknown[83.222.190.50]
Sep 07 23:26:13 mail.financetofinance.com postfix/smtpd[1203348]: disconnect from unknown[83.222.190.50] ehlo=1 auth=0/1 rset=1 commands=2/3

what i got im sorry for being slow im new to all this

This indicates you have customized your Postfix configuration. That wouldn’t happen in a default Virtualmin configuration, as Postfix is configured to authenticate via saslauthd, using system users.

What milter(s) have you enabled? I would recommend you simplify your configuration until everything is working, by disabling milters.

Also a custom configuration of some sort.

How did you install Virtualmin? This doesn’t look like a Virtualmin configured system. Did you try to follow some random guide on the internet for mail configuration?

If this is a new system, I recommend you start over from a freshly installed supported OS, and follow our installation documentation. Mail works out of the box in that case (assuming the server has port 25, you configure the system hostname in a reasonable way, and you are able to get a TLS cert from Let’s Encrypt for one of your domains).

If you can’t install fresh because this is a production system, and you think starting over would take a lot more time than fixing this one, you’ll need to learn how to post the actual postfix configuration (postconf), your saslauthd configuration, and how to read the logs so you can have a reasonable change/test cycle while understanding what you’re doing.

Figuring out why/how you have a non-standard configuration would also be useful, so you know how to avoid getting into this mess again.

1 Like

i followed a paid course on how to install roundcube and virtualmin initially everything was working fine until i updated virtualmin and roundcube i checked for milter service and it says it doesnt exist,so please how do i learn how to post the actual poistfix configuration i ran this commands:etc/init.d/saslauthd restart, /etc/init.d/postfix restart

You need to go a bit more in depth with this, you need to know which milters you are running before you can test which one is failing but I would guess that to be the greylist milter. But this is the least of your worries, for now I would post the output from the command

postconf -n

so others can see what is none standard on your postfix server

This is a different issue open a new thread

oh im sorry guys for the confusions im new to all this sorry for mixing my problems

so should i run or check postconf -n

if you run it, it will give you a list of non standard postfix variables, then just copy the result here

alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
allow_percent_hack = no
append_dot_mydomain = no
biff = no
broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
compatibility_level = 2
disable_vrfy_command = yes
home_mailbox = Maildir/
inet_interfaces = all
inet_protocols = all
mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail-wrapper -o -a $DOMAIN -d $LOGNAME
mailbox_size_limit = 0
milter_default_action = accept
mydestination = $myhostname, mail.financetofinance.com, localhost.financetofinance.com, , localhost
myhostname = mail.financetofinance.com
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
myorigin = /etc/mailname
non_smtpd_milters = inet:127.0.0.1:8891
readme_directory = no
recipient_delimiter = +
resolve_dequoted_address = no
sender_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc
sender_dependent_default_transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/dependent
smtp_dns_support_level = dnssec
smtp_host_lookup = dns
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_tls_CApath = /etc/ssl/certs
smtp_tls_security_level = may
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache
smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
smtpd_milters = inet:127.0.0.1:8891
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks permit_sasl_authenticated reject_unauth_destination permit_inet_interfaces
smtpd_relay_restrictions = permit_mynetworks permit_sasl_authenticated defer_unauth_destination permit_inet_interfaces
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous noactive nodictionary forward_secrecy
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/postfix.ca.pem
smtpd_tls_auth_only = yes
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/postfix.cert.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/postfix.key.pem
smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2, !SSLv3, !TLSv1, !TLSv1.1
smtpd_tls_security_level = encrypt
tls_server_sni_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sni_map
virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

This is a few items in there which virtualmin would not have set, I would guess all of virtualmin may have errors, which may account for other errors you are experiencing

so what do i do please

as suggested in the PM,basically start again installing virtualmin on a freshly installed OS of your choice and follow the instructions given at https://www.virtualmin.com/download/

[ERROR] Something went wrong. Exiting.
[ERROR] The last few log entries were:
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
ge proftpd-basic (–configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
proftpd-core
proftpd-mod-crypto
proftpd-mod-wrap
proftpd-basic
needrestart is being skipped since dpkg has failed
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
… done
Checking CA certificates package: [2024-09-08 09:08:14 UTC] [ERROR] Failed with error: 100
[2024-09-08 09:08:14 UTC] [ERROR] Something went wrong. Exiting.
[2024-09-08 09:08:14 UTC] [ERROR] The last few log entries were: