Blind Users Locked out of gmail.com going to gmx.com but pinerc doesn't work.

A bunch of blind users who had signed up years ago with google gmail had set their phone number to their only number, a landline phone.

A few had old verizon accounts but since they were using gmail, they didn't roll over that account.

Recent changes maybe two months ago now locked those subscribers out, the others were able to log in the graphical user interface (GUI) and obtain a "application specific password". This password seems to work both for mutt and alpine as well - but maybe not, as I'm confused as some users are getting errors and my head is swimming.

One fellow Jim Green is having a heck of a time, he has mutt working but he much prefers alpine as mutt has screens that don't do a good job of working with a screen reader, alpine is much bette.

He's using both Debian and Slint a Slackware Distro for International and Blind users, Slint is wonderful

I'm going to paste Jim's pinerc file here.

I cannot find any problem but when he tries to send he gets error messages.
[Mail not sent: Bad sequence of commands]

I paste it below my signature.

Regards,
David

# Alpine configuration file
# # This file sets the configuration options used by Alpine and PC-Alpine. These
# options are usually set from within Alpine or PC-Alpine. There may be a
# system-wide configuration file which sets the defaults for some of the
# variables. On Unix, run alpine -conf to see how system defaults have been set.
# For variables that accept multiple values, list elements are separated by
# commas. A line beginning with a space or tab is considered to be a
# continuation of the previous line. For a variable to be unset its value must
# be blank. To set a variable to the empty string its value should be "".
# You can override system defaults by setting a variable to the empty string.
# Lines beginning with "#" are comments, and ignored by Alpine.

# Over-rides your full name from Unix password file. Required for PC-Alpine..
personal-name=Jim Green

# Sets domain part of From: and local addresses in outgoing mail.
user-domain=gmx.com

# List of SMTP servers for sending mail. If blank: Unix Alpine uses sendmail.
smtp-server=mail.gmx.com/novalidate-cert/ssl/user=2greensinva@gmx.com

# NNTP server for posting news. Also sets news-collections for news reading..
nntp-server
# Path of (local or remote) INBOX, e.g. ={mail.somewhere.edu}inbox
# Normal Unix default is the local INBOX (usually /usr/spool/mail/$USER).
inbox-path={imap.gmx.com/ssl/user=2greensinva@gmx.com}INBOX

# List of folder pairs; the first indicates a folder to archive, and the
# second indicates the folder read messages in the first should
# be moved to.
incoming-archive-folders
# List of folders, assumed to be in first folder collection,
# offered for pruning each month. For example: mumble
pruned-folders
# Over-rides default path for sent-mail folder, e.g. =old-mail (using first
# folder collection dir) or ={host2}sent-mail or ="" (to suppress saving).
# Default: sent-mail (Unix) or SENTMAIL.MTX (PC) in default folder collection.
default-fcc
# Over-rides default path for saved-msg folder, e.g. =saved-messages (using 1st
# folder collection dir) or ={host2}saved-mail or ="" (to suppress saving).
# Default: saved-messages (Unix) or SAVEMAIL.MTX (PC) in default collection..
default-saved-msg-folder
# Over-rides default path for postponed messages folder, e.g. =pm (which uses
# first folder collection dir) or ={host4}pm (using home dir on host4).
# Default: postponed-msgs (Unix) or POSTPOND.MTX (PC) in default fldr coltn..
postponed-folder
# If set, specifies where already-read messages will be moved upon quitting..
read-message-folder
# If set, specifies where form letters should be stored.
form-letter-folder
# If set, specifies where trash is moved to in Web Alpine.
trash-folder
# Contains the actual signature contents as opposed to the signature filename.
# If defined, this overrides the signature-file. Default is undefined.
literal-signature
# Over-rides default path for signature file. Default is ~/.signature
signature-file
# List of features; see Alpine's Setup/options menu for the current set.
# e.g. feature-list= select-without-confirm, signature-at-bottom
# Default condition for all of the features is no-.
feature-list=copy-to-address-to-from-if-it-is-us,
show-cursor,
enable-alternate-editor-cmd,
enable-incoming-folders,
single-column-folder-list,
disable-take-last-comma-first,
expanded-view-of-addressbooks,
allow-talk,
enable-msg-view-addresses,
no-enable-msg-view-attachments,
next-thread-without-confirm,
convert-dates-to-localtime,
thread-index-shows-important-color,
quell-user-lookup-in-passwd-file,
no-disable-password-caching,
compose-cut-from-cursor,
prefer-plain-text,
enable-verbose-smtp-posting,
no-enable-msg-view-forced-arrows,
compose-rejects-unqualified-addrs,
downgrade-multipart-to-text,
combined-addrbook-display,
include-attachments-in-reply,
thread-sorts-by-arrival,
no-show-sort,
enable-dot-files,
slash-collapses-entire-thread,
suppress-asterisks-in-password-prompt,
no-delete-skips-deleted,
strip-whitespace-before-send,
enable-lame-list-mode,
check-newmail-when-quitting,
no-enable-mouse-in-xterm,
enable-rules-under-take,
use-current-dir

# Alpine executes these keys upon startup (e.g. to view msg 13: i,j,1,3,CR,v)
initial-keystroke-list
# Only show these headers (by default) when composing messages
default-composer-hdrs
# Add these customized headers (and possible default values) when composing
customized-hdrs
# When viewing messages, include this list of headers
viewer-hdrs=To: From: Subject:

# When viewing messages, number of blank spaces between left display edge and text
viewer-margin-left
# When viewing messages, number of blank spaces between right display edge and text
viewer-margin-right
# When viewing messages, number of lines of quote displayed before suppressing
quote-suppression-threshold
# Determines default folder name for Saves...
# Choices: default-folder, by-sender, by-from, by-recipient, last-folder-used.
# Default: "default-folder", i.e. "saved-messages" (Unix) or "SAVEMAIL" (PC).
saved-msg-name-rule
# Determines default name for Fcc...
# Choices: default-fcc, by-recipient, last-fcc-used.
# Default: "default-fcc" (see also "default-fcc=" variable.)
fcc-name-rule
# Sets presentation order of messages in Index. Choices:
# Subject, From, Arrival, Date, Size, To, Cc, OrderedSubj, Score, and Thread.
# Order may be reversed by appending /Reverse. Default: "Arrival".
sort-key=Arrival
# Sets presentation order of address book entries. Choices: dont-sort,
# fullname-with-lists-last, fullname, nickname-with-lists-last, nickname
# Default: "fullname-with-lists-last".
addrbook-sort-rule
# Sets presentation order of folder list entries. Choices: alphabetical,
# alpha-with-dirs-last, alpha-with-dirs-first.
# Default: "alpha-with-directories-last".
folder-sort-rule
# Sets the default folder and collection offered at the Goto Command's prompt.
goto-default-rule
# Sets message which cursor begins on. Choices: first-unseen, first-recent,
# first-important, first-important-or-unseen, first-important-or-recent,
# first, last. Default: "first-unseen".
incoming-startup-rule
# Allows a default answer for the prune folder questions. Choices: yes-ask,
# yes-no, no-ask, no-no, ask-ask, ask-no. Default: "ask-ask".
pruning-rule
# Controls behavior when reopening an already open folder.
folder-reopen-rule
# Style that MESSAGE INDEX is displayed in when threading.
threading-display-style=mutt

# Style of THREAD INDEX or default MESSAGE INDEX when threading.
threading-index-style
# When threading, character used to indicate collapsed messages underneath.
threading-indicator-character
# When threading, character used to indicate expanded messages underneath.
threading-expanded-character
# When threading, character used to indicate this is the last reply
# to the parent of this message.
threading-lastreply-character
# Reflects capabilities of the display you have.
# If unset, the default is taken from your locale. That is usually the right
# thing to use. Typical alternatives include UTF-8, ISO-8859-x, and EUC-JP
# (where x is a number between 1 and 9).
display-character-set
# Reflects capabilities of the keyboard you have.
# If unset, the default is to use the same value
# used for the display-character-set.
keyboard-character-set
# Defaults to UTF-8. This is used for outgoing messages.
# It is usually correct to leave this unset.
posting-character-set
# Defaults to nothing, which is equivalent to US-ASCII. This is used for
# unlabeled incoming messages. It is ok to leave this unset but if you receive
# unlabeled mail that is usually in some known character set, set that here..
unknown-character-set
# Specifies the program invoked by ^_ in the Composer,
# or the "enable-alternate-editor-implicitly" feature.
editor=nano

On Sun, 7 Aug 2022, David wrote:

> Blind Users Locked out of gmail.com going to gmx.com but pinerc doesn't
> work.

That's because Gmail and Gmx do different things. Gmail enforces that the
From field be the one that they configure and if you set it up incorrectly
they modify it to what they think it should be, while Gmx checks that the
From field be the one that is supposed to be and does not send the message
if it is not what it should be.

The easiest way to solve this issue (for this person) is to edit the
customized-hdrs field and set it up as

customized-hdrs=Personal Name <address@gmx.com>

--
Eduardo
https://alpineapp.email (web)
http://repo.or.cz/alpine.git (Git)

Still Have Sending Mail Problems

Hello Eduardo,

I'm trying to help some of the Slint mailing list users who are blind
who absolutely LOVE Alpine but find it impossible to configure with
the fairly recent changes, both in Alpine and with their new accounts
with gmx.com after gmail.com changed their policies and required
"application specific passwords" - many of the gmail users could not
set those up because they do not know how to use the graphical user
interface .

I've gotten them to use mutt which is easier to configure but they
want Alpine, but alpine is very difficult now to configure and use
especially if you have a computer generated "Application Specific
Password" - incidentally the same Application Specific Password that
we generated for mutt works for alpine.

I am running Slackware 15, variant SLINT for blind and International Users.

I made a new user and home directory for one of the person's I am
trying to help. His name is jim so I added user jim to my system.

He gave me his gmx password and user name.

I can receive his email but I cannot send any messages.

Using my account on the same computer, I can send with alpine using my
dot pinerc file and a bash_alias entry that is:
alias alpine='alpine -passfile ~.pinepass'

I copied my .pinerc file to my friends folder ~/jim and I changed the
account names to his account, and my name to his name and I changed to
file ownership to jim:users.

At the beginning of his file I put these lines:
personal-name="Jim Lastname"
customized-hdrs="Jim Lastname"<emailaddress@gmx.com>

When I try to send mail with alpine it still gives me errors.
Mail Not Sent: Bad Sequence of Commands.

I get these commands when I directly lot into Jim's account on my
computer, or when I start a MATE GUI by logging in as jim and then
using startx.

I have used vimdiff to compare my dot pinerc file and Jim's .pinerc
file in his /home/jim folder and except for his email and name beng
different they're identical.

I've deleted the .alpine-smime folder in Jim's home folder, and I
still get the above error.

What else must I do?

I've worked several days on this, I wish there was a command NOT to
put all the security additions in Alpine like a master password and
the need for a .bash_alias command like I have for Jim's alpine which
is alias alpine='alpine -passfile /home/jim/.pinepass'

The procedure for removing the master password from alpine can be
confusing especially for blind users.

I can't understand why I'm getting this error.

Regards,

David

On Wed, 10 Aug 2022, djringjr wrote:

>
> Using my account on the same computer, I can send with alpine using my
> dot pinerc file and a bash_alias entry that is:
> alias alpine='alpine -passfile ~.pinepass'

I imagine that this means ~/.pinepass, right? (add "/" after "~").

> I copied my .pinerc file to my friends folder ~/jim and I changed the
> account names to his account, and my name to his name and I changed to
> file ownership to jim:users.
>
> At the beginning of his file I put these lines:
> personal-name="Jim Lastname"
> customized-hdrs="Jim Lastname"<emailaddress@gmx.com>

I imagine there is a space between "Jim Lastname" and
<emailaddress@gmx.com>, and also it should say From: to indicate the name
of the header. Please try:

customized-hdrss=From: "Jim Lastname" <emailaddress@gmx.com>

> When I try to send mail with alpine it still gives me errors. Mail Not
> Sent: Bad Sequence of Commands.

Yes, without the correct From header you should get this error.

> What else must I do?

I believe the problem is the configuration of the From: header.

> I've worked several days on this, I wish there was a command NOT to
> put all the security additions in Alpine like a master password and
> the need for a .bash_alias command like I have for Jim's alpine which
> is alias alpine='alpine -passfile /home/jim/.pinepass'

I realize that not everyone likes the master password, but it can be
removed, also you do not need to alias Alpine if you use the password file
that was compiled into Alpine. To see the name of the password file that
was compiled into alpine run alpine with the command

alpine -v

and then see what it says under --with-passfile, an if it says .pinepass,
then starting alpine with the command "alpine -passfile ~/.pinepass" is
the same as starting alpine with the command "alpine" and you do not need
to alias Alpine.

I hope this helps.

--
Eduardo
https://alpineapp.email (web)
http://repo.or.cz/alpine.git (Git)

Hello Eduardo,

Unfortunately, I am getting the same error.

Alpine 2.25 (LNX 592 2021-09-18) built Mon Sep 20 21:07:05 CDT 2021 on
z-mp.slackware.lan
Alpine was built with the following options:
CFLAGS=-O2 -fPIC
../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/man --with-ssl-dir=/usr \
--with-ssl-certs-dir=/etc/ssl/certs --with-c-client-target=slx \
--with-system-pinerc=/etc/pine.conf \
--with-system-fixed-pinerc=/etc/pine.conf.fixed \
--with-passfile=.alpine.passfile --disable-debug --with-debug-level=0 \
--without-tcl --program-prefix= --program-suffix= \
--build=x86_64-slackware-linux build_alias=x86_64-slackware-linux

I deleted the bashrc entries and the .bash_aliases entries for alpine,
now alpine just runs alpine without any additional switches.

Alpine correctly asked me for a Master Password, and I made up one and
it worked.

But when I send mail I get this error message.

[Mail not sent: Bad sequence of commands]

I am so frustrated because when I log into my account on the same
computer, I can send email from alpine using my gmx.com account.

I'm going to send you the .pinerc file off list. If you wish, I will
send you the password because there's nothing of secret importance in
Jim's email account.

Just for the list here's the important entries in Jim's .pinerc file.
I am using a separate user account in Slint Slackware 15. The pinerc
file is located in /homejim/.pinerc and I'm sending it off list in
full.

Here's parts of it. Remember, even though I'm not blind, I am
visually handicapped.

# Overrides your full name from Unix password file. Required for PC-Alpine.
personal-name="Jim LastName"
customized-hdrs=From: "Jim LastName" <emailaddress@gmx.com>

You had written customized-hdrss=From: "Jim Lastname"
<emailaddress@gmx.com> I tried it that way even though I believe it
was a typo error. That didn't work either!

I have run vimdiff on the two files and they are identical except for
the email name and address.

I really want to get Alpine working for Jim because he prefers it much
more than mutt which he does have working.

There are others on the Slint email list who are having problems with
Alpine, but with the new information on how to find the name of the
password file, things will improve. I tell them to use their name
with all lower case like my master alpine password is davidring fast
enough to type and remember.

Best regards,

David

On Wednesday, August 10, 2022 at 10:37:21 PM UTC-4, Eduardo Chappa wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Aug 2022, djringjr wrote:

> > What else must I do?
> I believe the problem is the configuration of the From: header.

>
> alpine -v
>
> and then see what it says under --with-passfile, an if it says .pinepass,
> then starting alpine with the command "alpine -passfile ~/.pinepass" is
> the same as starting alpine with the command "alpine" and you do not need
> to alias Alpine.
>
> I hope this helps.
> --
> Eduardo
> https://alpineapp.email (web)
> http://repo.or.cz/alpine.git (Git)

On Wed, 10 Aug 2022, djringjr wrote:

> I'm going to send you the .pinerc file off list. If you wish, I will
> send you the password because there's nothing of secret importance in
> Jim's email account.

For those that want to understand the problem here, the issue was
that the .pinerc file was edited by hand and the line for customized-hdrs
was added to the .pinerc file around the beginning of the file without
deleting the other customized-hdrs line in the file. This made Alpine use
the second appearance of this line as the configuration for this variable,
that is, it made alpine disregard the correct configuration around the top
of the document.

While many times I recommend to add to the .pinerc file an option, value,
etc. by hand, please consider doing it through a configuration screen to
avoid problems like the one that happened here.

--
Eduardo
https://alpineapp.email (web)
http://repo.or.cz/alpine.git (Git)

On 2022-08-12 05:12, Eduardo Chappa wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Aug 2022, djringjr wrote:
>
>> I'm going to send you the .pinerc file off list.  If you wish, I will
>> send you the password because there's nothing of secret importance in
>> Jim's email account.
>
> For those that want to understand the problem here, the issue was that
> the .pinerc file was edited by hand and the line for customized-hdrs was
> added to the .pinerc file around the beginning of the file without
> deleting the other customized-hdrs line in the file. This made Alpine
> use the second appearance of this line as the configuration for this
> variable, that is, it made alpine disregard the correct configuration
> around the top of the document.
>
> While many times I recommend to add to the .pinerc file an option,
> value, etc. by hand, please consider doing it through a configuration
> screen to avoid problems like the one that happened here.
>

Idea:

Some programs (for instance, postfix) have an option to dump on screen
the actual configuration it uses.

--
Cheers, Carlos.