Re: Balsa hangs when turning off SSL for IMAP

[Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels cistron nl>]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 18:34:13, Peter Bloomfield wrote:
> On 08/19/2004 12:12:40 PM, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:
> [ snip ]
> > Perhaps Balsa should remove :993 automatically when SSL is used  
> > (likewise :143 when SSL isn't turned on), that would make  
> > things more logical for those migrating from 2.0 to 2.2
>
> Yes, that would make sense.
>
> [ snip ]
> > Still have to enter the password 5 times though .. so that  
> > wasn't related.
>
> That should be fixed in cvs.  The attached patch should achieve  
> the same thing for a 2.2.x tree with earlier patches applied  
> (mailbox-imap-patch and mailbox-node-patch).

Yes, this works. Thanks!

There's one weird issue remaining though. It's kind of hard to
describe an actual problem, so I'll just document what I experienced
step by step. It's reproducable (except for the "hang", that sometimes
happens and sometimes doesn't), I tried this several times.

- I tested before on the system at work, on which I have password-
 checking set to always (don't want to save the password in my
 homedir on the shared NFS server). I'm now testing at home,
 where password checking is turned off.

- So, initial settings:
 - IMAP mailserver, port :993, SSL enabled
 - INBOX/Sent/Drafts/Trash on IMAP server
 - Remember password

- After upgrading from 2.0.17 to 2.2.5, everything worked just fine.
 I decided to turn on password checking, and change SSL to TLS.

- In settings -> Preferences -> Mailservers -> IMAP -> Modify:
 o under Basic -> delete :993 from server string
               -> turn off "remember password"
 o under Advanced -> Turn off SSL
                  -> Set TLS to "Required"
 o Click "Update"

- Now, suddenly the INBOX/Sent/Drafts/Trash folders aren't listed
 under the IMAP mailserver tree anymore - they've moved to the
 root of the folder tree on their own.
 Right clicking on INBOX (etc) and selecting "Properties" results
 in the standard simple "Remote IMAP mailfolder" - "Rename or
 move subfolder" dialog box, though.

- So, exit Balsa and restart.
 Now, INBOX/Sent/Drafts/Trash folders are still listed at the
 root level of the folder list - but right clicking on them
 and selecting "properties" results in a "Mailbox configurator"
 dialog, just as if this is a seperate IMAP server. And here,
 the server strings still has :993 appended, remember password
 is still enabled and SSL is enabled.

 Also Settings -> Preferences -> Mail servers suddenly lists
 5 IMAP servers: INBOX, Sent, Drafts, Trash and Office (the
 latter being the original single IMAP server).

 So I go to properties of INBOX, unset "remember password",
 remove ":993" from the server string, and enable SSL. To
 my surprise, Sent, Drafts and Trash now also have these
 settings automatically applied.

- Exit Balsa and restart.
 Oops. Balsa hangs completely at startup. Tcpdump shows that it
 connects to the IMAP server, starts to negotiate TLS then
 just sits there.

- Stop IMAP server and restart balsa. Now balsa starts, complaining
 it can't connect to the IMAP server.

 Settings -> Preferences -> Mail servers still lists 5 servers,
 INBOX has the new settings I enabled (no :993, TLS) BUT
 Sent, Drafts and Trash have the old settings again (:993
 appended, SSL enabled, remember password enabled).

 So I change the settings for Sent to don't remember password,
 remove :993 from server strings, enable TLS. Again, Drafts
 and Trash inherit these settings. But, after a restart - you
 guessed it, settings for Drafts and Trash are back to the
 original settings. Change the settings for Drafts, Trash
 inherits it, restart, settings for Trash gone, change settings
 for Trash, restart - finally they're all the same.

- Restart IMAP server and Balsa. Grr, balsa still hangs at startup.

- Stop IMAP server. Start balsa. Start IMAP server. Click right
 on INBOX (still listed at root level). Select 'open'. Balsa
 asks for password - enter password - INBOX open! Now click right
 on the IMAP server subtree (which is still collapsed) - select 'rescan'.

 Suddenly the IMAP folder tree expands, and INBOX/Sent/Drafts/Trash
 folders move instantly from the root of the tree to their
 location under the IMAP server. Also Settings -> Preferences ->
 Mail Servers now again only shows one IMAP server.

It appears that somehow Balsa creates a seperate instance of an
IMAP server object for IMAP Server/INBOX/Sent/Drafts/Trash and
doesn't keep them in sync when changing the properties of the
main IMAP server .. even saving those properties seperately.

The "hang" I can't explain at all. Perhaps balsa needs a startup-option
that tells it to NOT open ANY mailboxes so that you can at least
go into the configuration when this happens. Also a timeout when
establishing an IMAP session would be a good idea (perhaps it's there,
but I waited several minutes and nothing happended). Wait - I have
"remember open mailboxes between sessions"  set, here at home, that
might have been the cause of that, see my message on monday with
subject "Balsa 2.2.3 hangs".

Hope this helps

Mike.