Hi !

This morning I had a problem with cPanel (could not create new accounts or restore backups), I decided to force cpanel to reinstall with /scripts/upcp --force but to my surprise I ended up with version 11 which I didn't plan on installing so soon.

I saw a message about mbox being deprecated and having to convert to maildir. I also know that I'm running Perl V5.8.7 which should be upgraded to 5.8.8. I don't know what I'm gonna do yet, keep 11 or go back to 10.

What kind of problems should I expect with cPanel 11 besides the 2 I mentioned. I have rvskin installed because I need my cPanels to run in french, is that still gonna work ?

I have a few customers using imap a lot, will moving from mbox to maildir create any problems for them ?

Well, I'm going to assume you were set to CURRENT or RELEASE both of which are now using cPanel 11. The STABLE branch is still using cPanel 10, but that will be changing over soon.

I would leave it as cPanel 11 and just convert your mbox to Maildir (nice tutorial on cPanel forums!) and upgrading Perl shouldn't be a problem.

IMAP works perfectly with Maildir, so you shouldn't notice any problems or loss of data, etc. However it's important to note that if you are using Neomail (Webmail client), that will no longer work after the conversion.

RVSkin will also work with cPanel 11, so you should be good to go. :)

decided to force cpanel to reinstall with /scripts/upcp --force

It should be noted that /scripts/upcp is primarily designed to upgrade cPanel (hence the name of the script). There is no script to merely re-install your existing build of cPanel/WHM.

When you run /scripts/upcp, your server will automatically download and install the latest release of your selected build of cPanel/WHM. So if you're on RELEASE, /scripts/upcp will update you to the latest RELEASE build.

Thanks Pat H,

According to my host, downgrading cPanel is buggy and I would end up with a lot of problems in the end so I have no choice but moving forward.

I was set to "Release" because that's what is recommended by cPanel, to say the truth, I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't make sure that everything required is installed before proceeding but it's not the end of the world.

I'm not worried about Perl but to be honnest I'm not too comfortable with converting the emails. I know no problems have been reported and it should go smoothly but it still a bit frightening ;)

I'm not worried about Perl but to be honnest I'm not too comfortable with converting the emails. I know no problems have been reported and it should go smoothly but it still a bit frightening ;)

While mbox is supported on cPanel 11, we are planning on phasing out mbox support. The trick to a successful conversion is letting the conversion process complete. This process will at a bare minimum take hours. Many times people grow impatient and kill the process halfway through, leaving a half-converted machine (and a giant mess). Let the process complete and all should be well :).

Here's more Newbie questions. On the forum on cPanel.net it says

"Make sure to run the option to backup your mail first".

How do I do that ?
If anything goes wrong, how do I restore that backup and go back to mbox ?

I'm sorry for asking such basic questions but as I said, I had not plan for this so I didn't prepare myself :)

Nervemind, I just found that it's interactive :)

"Make sure to run the option to backup your mail first".

How do I do that ?


When you run convert2maildir one of the options presented to you is to backup your mailboxes. You can restore from the same script.

rvskin works fine with cPanel 11 and even has an nice updated look. Just make sure you run your rvskin update.

I posted this over at cPanel.net this morning but haven't got any answer. Since my upgrade yesterday I can't get spamd to run. I have upgraded Perl to 5.8.8, I converted my mailbox to maildir and did the other stuff that was recommended on cPanel's forum but spamd can't start.

I checked the exim_paniclog file and it shows this.
2007-06-11 10:00:44 1HxkRS-00023P-JX spam acl condition:warning - spamd connection to 127.0.0.1, port 783 failed: Connection refused
2007-06-11 10:00:44 1HxkRS-00023P-JX spam acl condition: all spamd servers failed
2007-06-12 07:32:53 1Hy4cG-0006hR-QG spam acl condition:warning - spamd connection to 127.0.0.1, port 783 failed: Connection refused
2007-06-12 07:32:53 1Hy4cG-0006hR-QG spam acl condition: all spamd servers failed


I manually downgraded spamassassin to 3.1.8 and it's working now but I know upcp will upgrade it again to 3.2.0 tonight and I'm gonna end up back where I was this morning.

I don't know where to look anymore.

Did you have any special spam rules installed?

I never added/modified any. I'm surprised this morning though because I haven't got any "Spamd failure" emails overnight. I though upcp would redownload spamassassin 3.2, either they changed it back to 3.1.8 or there was something wrong that was fixed.

I'll have to check that when I get to the office.

I'm back with the same problem this morning except that this time even SpamAssassin 3.1.8 is not working. I've been digging a little (with my limited knowledge) and it seems that something called hp-alarm-mgr is taking port 783 which would cause spamd to fail.

Thanks Pat H,
According to my host, downgrading cPanel is buggy and I would end up with a lot of problems

I agree with your host.