Re: flexfax: Mail Gateway

[Phil Watkinson <pkw@elgro.co.uk>]

At 13:28 05/12/1997 -0800, Hugh Caley wrote:
>Here's an update on my mail gateway situation:  I can send mail to the
>fax server in the form phonenumber@user.fax, and the mail will be faxed;
>however I always get the message "Unknown mailer error 139" (or actually
>root on the mail server gets this message).
>
>Also, if I attach a postscript file to the message, the first page shows
>up as a tiny graphic in the lower left corner of the page with the text
>of the message, and any further pages are fine, followed by a single
>blank page.
>
>Has anyone seen either of these two problems before?
>

Hi, Hugh

Well I suppose your first problem does make a change from "Unknown mailer
error 255" and I guess sendmail is unhappy about something. How about 
logging the fax mail through sendmail and seeing exactly where the error
is occuring?  To do this you need to load sendmail with the '-X' parameter,
this is an extract from my Redhat Linux SysV-type bootup script :-

        echo -n "Starting sendmail (mail is being logged): "
        daemon /usr/sbin/sendmail -bd -X /var/log/maillog

Beware, the maillog file can get very big, especially if there is lots of
attachments flying about. Hopefully this will give you more informaton.

The second problem you have encountered is well known. If you search the 
mailing list archives at :-

	 http://www.vix.com/cgi-bin/mlaform/hylafax/Archives/?

for a thread with the subject :-

	Re: flexfax: postscript attachments show up at 5% size 

and in particular the two emails from Louis REINARD which highlight where
the problem is in the source code. This was probably the easy bit compared
with the task of coming up with a solution and then trying to get it
coded up. Ben Parker, in the same thread, suggested a workaround using an
external convertor script which basically magnified the image 18 times 
before submitting it to HylaFAX.

If you have some time, and especially if you can speak C++, then any help
you could give on this subject would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Phil Watkinson,
Boston, UK.