Virtualmin installer deployed dovecot bad defaults

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Fedora 43 - Grade B
Webmin version REQUIRED
Virtualmin version REQUIRED
Related packages Dovecot

clean installed Fedora server:

root@hf-cs-01:~# history 
    1  history 
root@hf-cs-01:~# ls /etc/dovecot
ls: cannot access '/etc/dovecot': No such file or directory
root@hf-cs-01:~# dnf install dovecot
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Package                                                                          Arch              Version                                                                          Repository                                          Size
Installing:
 dovecot                                                                         x86_64            1:2.4.1-8.fc43                                                                   updates                                         11.5 MiB
Installing dependencies:
 xapian-core-libs                                                                x86_64            1.4.29-3.fc43                                                                    fedora                                           2.1 MiB

Transaction Summary:
 Installing:         2 packages

Total size of inbound packages is 4 MiB. Need to download 4 MiB.
After this operation, 14 MiB extra will be used (install 14 MiB, remove 0 B).
Is this ok [y/N]: y
[1/2] xapian-core-libs-0:1.4.29-3.fc43.x86_64                                                                                                                                                       100% |   5.9 MiB/s | 797.9 KiB |  00m00s
[2/2] dovecot-1:2.4.1-8.fc43.x86_64                                                                                                                                                                 100% |  15.3 MiB/s |   3.7 MiB |  00m00s
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2/2] Total                                                                                                                                                                                         100% |   5.9 MiB/s |   4.4 MiB |  00m01s
Running transaction
[1/4] Verify package files                                                                                                                                                                          100% |  30.0   B/s |   2.0   B |  00m00s
[2/4] Prepare transaction                                                                                                                                                                           100% |  16.0   B/s |   2.0   B |  00m00s
[3/4] Installing xapian-core-libs-0:1.4.29-3.fc43.x86_64                                                                                                                                            100% |   4.8 MiB/s |   2.1 MiB |  00m00s
[4/4] Installing dovecot-1:2.4.1-8.fc43.x86_64                                                                                                                                                      100% |   7.9 MiB/s |  11.6 MiB |  00m01s
Complete!
root@hf-cs-01:~# systemctl start dovecot
root@hf-cs-01:~# systemctl status dovecot
● dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dovecot.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-12-31 01:04:03 CET; 5s ago
 Invocation: 654f13e4c2274137b5443bb59ebaf8f0
       Docs: man:dovecot(1)
             https://doc.dovecot.org/
   Main PID: 2216 (dovecot)
     Status: "v2.4.1-4 (7d8c0e5759) running"
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 4632)
     Memory: 6.5M (peak: 6.5M)
        CPU: 99ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/dovecot.service
             ├─2216 /usr/bin/dovecot -F
             ├─2218 dovecot/anvil
             ├─2219 dovecot/log
             └─2220 dovecot/config

Dec 31 01:04:03 hf-cs-01.dom.tld[1]: Starting dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Dec 31 01:04:03 hf-cs-01.dom.tld dovecot[2216]: master: Dovecot v2.4.1-4 (7d8c0e5759) starting up for imap, lmtp
Dec 31 01:04:03 hf-cs-01.dom.tld systemd[1]: Started dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
root@hf-cs-01:~# cat /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf 
## Dovecot configuration file

# Dovecot configuration version. This must be the first setting in the
# configuration file. It specifies the configuration syntax, the used setting
# names and the expected default values.
dovecot_config_version = 2.4.1

# Dovecot storage file format version. It specifies the oldest Dovecot version
# that must be able to read files written by this Dovecot instance. The
# intention is that when upgrading Dovecot cluster, this setting is first kept
# as the old Dovecot version. Once the cluster is fully upgraded to a new
# version and there is no intention to rollback to the old version anymore,
# this version number can be increased.
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.1

# The configuration below is a minimal configuration file using system user authentication.
# See https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/quick_configuration/

# Enable wanted protocols:
protocols {
  imap = yes
  lmtp = yes
}

mail_home = /home/%{user}
mail_driver = maildir
mail_path = ~/mail

# By default first_valid_uid is 1000. If your vmail user's UID is smaller,
# you need to modify this:
first_valid_uid = 1000

namespace inbox {
  inbox = yes
  separator = /
}

# Authenticate as system users:
passdb pam {
}

userdb passwd {
}

ssl = required
ssl_cipher_list = PROFILE=SYSTEM

ssl_server {
  cert_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/certs/dovecot.pem
  key_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem
}

!include_try conf.d/*.conf

Clean install service starts as expected, no errors related to the SSL option, would suggest upstream is clean.

reverted host to clean install, try again:

root@hf-cs-01:~# history
    1  history
root@hf-cs-01:~# mkdir -p /root/install-scripts/virtualmin/ && cd /root/install-scripts/virtualmin/
root@hf-cs-01:~/install-scripts/virtualmin# wget https://rc.download.virtualmin.dev/virtualmin-install-8.0.1.sh
Saving 'virtualmin-install-8.0.1.sh'
HTTP response 200  [https://rc.download.virtualmin.dev/virtualmin-install-8.0.1.sh]
virtualmin-install-8 100% [=========================================================================================================================================================================================>]   61.23K    --.-KB/s
                          [Files: 1  Bytes: 61.23K [76.83KB/s] Redirects: 0  Todo: 0  Errors: 0                                                                                                                      ]
root@hf-cs-01:~/install-scripts/virtualmin# chmod +x virtualmin-install-8.0.1.sh 
root@hf-cs-01:~/install-scripts/virtualmin# ./virtualmin-install-8.0.1.sh --unstable
[INFO] Installation log is written to /root/install-scripts/virtualmin/virtualmin-install.log

  Welcome to the Virtualmin GPL installer, version 8.0.1

  This script must be run on a freshly installed supported OS. It does not
  perform updates or upgrades (use your system package manager) or license
  changes (use the "virtualmin change-license" command).

  The systems currently supported by the install script are:

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivatives
      - Alma and Rocky 8, 9 and 10 on x86_64 and aarch64
      - RHEL 8, 9 and 10 on x86_64 and aarch64
      - Fedora Server 42 and above on x86_64 and aarch64
      - CentOS Stream 8, 9 and 10 on x86_64 and aarch64
      - Oracle Linux 8, 9 and 10 on x86_64 and aarch64
      - Amazon Linux 2023 and above on x86_64 and aarch64
      - CloudLinux 8 and 9 on x86_64
      - openEuler 24.03 and above on x86_64 and aarch64
           
    Debian Linux and derivatives
      - Debian 11, 12 and 13 on i386, amd64 and arm64
      - Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04 on i386, amd64 and arm64
      - Kali Linux Rolling 2025 and above on amd64 and arm64
      - Ubuntu interim (non-LTS) on i386, amd64 and arm64
           
  If your OS/version/arch is not listed, installation will fail. More
  details about the systems supported by the script can be found here:

    https://www.virtualmin.com/os-support

  The installation will require up to 2 GB of disk space. The selected
  package bundle is LAMP and the type of install is full. More details
  about the package bundles and types can be found here:

    https://www.virtualmin.com/installation-variations

  Exit and re-run this script with --help flag to see available options.

 Continue? (y/n) y

   INSTALLATION WARNING 

  You are about to install Virtualmin GPL on a Grade B operating
  system. Be advised that this OS version is not recommended for servers,
  and may have bugs that could affect the performance and stability of
  the system.

  Certain features may not work as intended or might be unavailable on
  this OS.

 Continue? (y/n) y

▣◻◻◻ Phase 1 of 4: Check
Checking system time                                                         ✔ 
Checking Perl installation                                                   ✔ 
Checking CA certificates package                                             ✔ 
Checking HTTP client                                                         ✔ 
Checking GPG package                                                         ✔ 

▣▣◻◻ Phase 2 of 4: Setup
Installing core plugins for package manager                                  ✔ 
Installing Virtualmin 8 stable repository                                    ✔ 

▣▣▣◻ Phase 3 of 4: Installation
Cleaning up software repo metadata                                           ✔ 
Checking and installing system package updates                               ✔ 
Installing dependencies and system packages                                  ✔ 
Installing Virtualmin 8 and all related packages                             ✔ 

▣▣▣▣ Phase 4 of 4: Configuration
[1/19] Configuring AWStats                                                   ✔ 
[2/19] Configuring Apache                                                    ✔ 
[3/19] Configuring Bind                                                      ✔ 
[4/19] Configuring ClamAV                                                    ✔ 
[5/19] Configuring Dovecot                                                   ✔ 
[6/19] Configuring Etckeeper                                                 ✔ 
[7/19] Configuring Firewalld                                                 ✔ 
[8/19] Configuring Fail2banFirewalld                                         ✔ 
[9/19] Configuring MariaDB                                                   ✔ 
[10/19] Configuring Postfix                                                  ✔ 
[11/19] Configuring ProFTPd                                                  ✔ 
[12/19] Configuring Procmail                                                 ✔ 
[13/19] Configuring Quotas                                                     
The filesystem / could not be remounted with quotas enabled.
You will need to reboot your system to enable quotas.                        ⚠ 
[14/19] Configuring SASL                                                     ✔ 
[15/19] Configuring Shells                                                   ✔ 
[16/19] Configuring SpamAssassin                                             ✔ 
[17/19] Configuring Usermin                                                  ✔ 
[18/19] Configuring Virtualmin                                              ▒██[31/Dec/2025:01:16:46 +0100] Failed to work out externally visible IPv6 address
 ✔ 
[19/19] Configuring Webmin                                                   ✔ 
▣▣▣ Cleaning up

[SUCCESS] Installation Complete!
[SUCCESS] If there were no errors above, Virtualmin is ready to be configured
[SUCCESS] at https://hf-cs-01.xx.dom.tld:10000 (or
[SUCCESS] https://xx.xx.xx.xx:10000).
[SUCCESS] You will see a security warning in the browser on your first visit.

root@hf-cs-01:~/install-scripts/virtualmin# systemctl status dovecot
× dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dovecot.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2025-12-31 01:15:43 CET; 3min 2s ago
 Invocation: 38a1826263b34e08ac487d28f7c6fee2
       Docs: man:dovecot(1)
             https://doc.dovecot.org/
   Main PID: 15098 (code=exited, status=89)
   Mem peak: 3M
        CPU: 44ms

Dec 31 01:15:43 hf-cs-01.dom.tld systemd[1]: Starting dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Dec 31 01:15:43 hf-cs-01.dom.tld dovecot[15098]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf: auth_allow_cleartext=yes has no effect with ssl=required
Dec 31 01:15:43 hf-cs-01.dom.tld systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
Dec 31 01:15:43 hf-cs-01.dom.tld systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 31 01:15:43 hf-cs-01.dom.tld systemd[1]: Failed to start dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
root@hf-cs-01:~/install-scripts/virtualmin# cat /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf 
## Dovecot configuration file

# Dovecot configuration version. This must be the first setting in the
# configuration file. It specifies the configuration syntax, the used setting
# names and the expected default values.
dovecot_config_version = 2.4.1

# Dovecot storage file format version. It specifies the oldest Dovecot version
# that must be able to read files written by this Dovecot instance. The
# intention is that when upgrading Dovecot cluster, this setting is first kept
# as the old Dovecot version. Once the cluster is fully upgraded to a new
# version and there is no intention to rollback to the old version anymore,
# this version number can be increased.
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.1

# The configuration below is a minimal configuration file using system user authentication.
# See https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/quick_configuration/

# Enable wanted protocols:
protocols {
  imap = yes
  lmtp = yes
}

mail_driver = maildir
mail_path = ~/Maildir

# By default first_valid_uid is 1000. If your vmail user's UID is smaller,
# you need to modify this:
first_valid_uid = 1000

namespace inbox {
  inbox = yes
  separator = /
}

# Authenticate as system users:
passdb pam {
}

userdb passwd {
}

ssl = required
ssl_cipher_list = PROFILE=SYSTEM

ssl_server {
  cert_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/certs/dovecot.pem
  key_file = /etc/pki/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem
}

!include_try conf.d/*.conf
protocols = imap pop3
auth_allow_cleartext = yes
root@hf-cs-01:~/install-scripts/virtualmin#

The bug is with the virttualmin installer, not the base OS defaults from upstream.

If there are more things you like me to try, let me know and i’ll give the installer another go.

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