RoundCube Unable to connect to the database

roundcubeubuntu-10.04

I just installed the RoundCube php mail client. I check the MySQL database and the new table was created, but through browser I'm getting the following error:

DATABASE ERROR: CONNECTION FAILED!

Unable to connect to the database!
Please contact your server-administrator.

I check the debian-db.php and the login parameters are correct, I also tried through terminal and I can connect to the db using this parameter

$dbuser='roundcube';
$dbpass='mypass';
$basepath='';
$dbname='roundcube';
$dbserver='';
$dbport='';
$dbtype='mysql';

Best Answer

I check the error log and there is the following error:DB Error: unable to find package 'MDB2_Driver_mysql' file 'MDB2/Driver/mysql.php', How can I fix this?

apt-get install php-pear
pear install MDB2_Driver_mysql

Related Solutions

Centos – Roundcube can’t connect to PostgreSQL database

The answer from DerfK above is wrong. You can use PostgreSQL using Unix socket with roundcube provided you're configuring it well. In the db.inc.php, it should read:

$rcmail_config['db_dsnw'] = 'pgsql://roundcube:*password*@unix(/tmp)/roundcube';

Provided you've created a "roundcube" user in pgsql for the database "roundcube" with password "password" In your main postgresql.conf, you should prevent listening on the IP layer, by changing:

listen_addresses = ''
unix_socket_directory = '/tmp'
ssl = false  # There's no point in using SSL on a local UNIX socket except wasting CPU

Also, and that is the most important part, you must change in pg_hba.conf to add this line:

local   all         roundcube                        md5

Restart everything, and it's working perfectly well and faster than using TCP connections (since you avoid all the IP encapsulation).

Postgresql – RoundCube login to local IMAP server failing

Being confronted with the very same issue, I did a few ours of Google-Foo to get to the root of the issue: As Gabriel assumed correcty in his answer, it's not the fault of Roundcube – but of the way the password is stored and the encryption works.

Few obvious basics

When talking about CRAM-MD5, MD5, or CRYPT, we're talking about one-way-encryption: A hash is generated. We cannot do that the other way around, deriving the clear-text password from the hash is (apart from brute-forcing) impossible and not realistic for any login-procedure. So with the password stored using one of these hashes, we can only validate it when having it plain-text – which is why setting $rcmail_config['imap_auth_type'] = 'PLAIN' in the roundcube configuration "solves" this.

Options

Stick with PLAIN/LOGIN:
- fine with Roundcube and IMAP on the same server, as long as users connect with HTTPS
- fine with access from mail clients, as long as the connection is secured (IMAPS/POP3S/SMTPS)
- a security hole with unencrypted traffic
Store the passwords plain-text
- all kind of auth mechanisms can be used, which is a pro
- having all your users' passwords plain-text in a file/database is an absolute no-go
Store the passwords using CRAM-MD5
- gives you at least CRAM-MD5, which most clients support
- still leaves the option of using PLAIN/LOGIN
- must be supported by your administrative tools
  - some of them might need to revert to 3rd party tools for encryption (e.g. PostfixAdmin uses /usr/sbin/doveadm pw), which makes the clear-text password appear shortly in the process list each time it is invoked
- other 3rd party tools (plugins/addons etc.) might be an issue

I'm still struggling which path to go – with only #2 definitely ruled-out (I don't want to make presents to potential hackers ;)