Mail service stuck starting in Mavericks

Question

After installing Mavericks server I've got a problem with the mailserver. In the Server.app it keeps showing as starting, but it never starts.
the terminal command 'serveradmin fullstatus mail' shows that everything is started as it should, except the Mail Transfer Agent. It shows the error Warning: SMTP mail service is enabled but not running.
The command 'serveradmin start mailtransferagent' results in the error "CANNOT_LOAD_BUNDLE_ERR"
Console shows no helpfull messages except the obscure "serveradmin: posting dist not" right after entering the 'serveradmin start mailtransferagent' command.
Any idea how I can get the mail service to start?

Answer 1

It's sort of an upgraded system. The Mavericks installation is actually a fresh one, but data was then restored with TimeMachine from a previous 10.6 system. So old configs are a possibility.
Belowe is all that showed in the log. Besides some (IMHO) non critical permission warnings, there is nothing. The mailaccess.log was actually empty.
Mail.log:
postfix/postfix-script[67467]: warning: group or other writable: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/./custom_header_checks
postfix/postfix-script[67468]: warning: group or other writable: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/./master.cf.default
postfix/postfix-script[67469]: warning: group or other writable: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/./master.cf.orig
postfix/postfix-script[67470]: warning: group or other writable: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/./virtual.db
postfix/postfix-script[67471]: warning: group or other writable: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/./virtual_domains
postfix/postfix-script[67472]: warning: group or other writable: /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/./virtual_users
System.log:
mds[63]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in virtual bool SISearchCtx_FSI::performSearch(struct PartialQueryResults *):Retried searchfs 4 times
mds[63]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in virtual bool SISearchCtx_FSI::performSearch(struct PartialQueryResults *):Throttling slow file system query
xpcd[916]: restored permissions (100600 -> 100700) on /private/var/root/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Container.plist
WindowServer[107]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "TextEdit" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService[68212]: Bogus event received by listener connection:
          <error: 0x7fff7af06b50> { count = 1, contents =
                    "XPCErrorDescription" => <string: 0x7fff7af06e60> { length = 18, contents = "Connection invalid" }
quicklookd[68202]: generateImageInProcess Failed to composit image for binding VariantBinding [0x203] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x103] - extension: pps, UTI: com.microsoft.powerpoint.pps, fileType: ????.
quicklookd[68202]: generateImageInProcess Failed to composit image for binding VariantBinding [0x403] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x303] - extension: GIF, UTI: com.compuserve.gif, fileType: ????.
WindowServer[107]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "TextEdit" after 5.36 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
quicklookd[68202]: generateImageInProcess Failed to composit image for binding VariantBinding [0x603] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x503] - extension: gif, UTI: com.compuserve.gif, fileType: ????.
quicklookd[68202]: generateImageInProcess Failed to composit image for binding VariantBinding [0x803] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x703] - extension: tiff, UTI: public.tiff, fileType: ????.
quicklookd[68202]: generateImageInProcess Failed to composit image for binding VariantBinding [0xa03] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x903] - extension: gif, UTI: com.compuserve.gif, fileType: ????.
kernel[0]: Sandbox: xcscredd(164) deny file-read-metadata /private/var/root
--- last message repeated 11 times ---
birds-srv-03.local sandboxd[191] ([164]): xcscredd(164) deny file-read-metadata /private/var/root
--- last message repeated 7 times ---