Assistance with SpamAssassin on Ubuntu 8.04 with ISPConfig

[cmnstr]

I hope someone can assist me. Since the first of the year I have had a problem with e-mail being marked Spam. I have found the docs showing what is causing this, yet I can't figure out how to change the settings. I don't have a Linux person any longer so any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are the particulars: Ubuntu 8.04 with ISPConfig and SpamAssassin. The main issue in the spam mail appears to be the line FH_DATE_PAST_20XX. I have tried to follow documents that show to edit this entry, have tried to increase my spam score slightly to correct most of the messages and have tried to update spamassassin. Nothing seems to work. When I follow the instructions to run sa-update I get an error. Are there any documents that will assist or does anyone have a solution? At this point I would even consider just simply stopping spamassassin but can't see how to stop the service.

 

[cmnstr]

Looks like I missed an important item. This may also be running inside a XEN VM so I may also need some guidance on how to change the VM.

 

[Noway2]

I remember this one, it was called the Y2010 bug. Here is an excerpt from an email where I was discussing the solution:

Apparently spamassassin requires an update. It was designed to look for dates in the 2009 year and once email rolled over to 2010, it started pounding it as spam. To fix the problem, add this line "score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0.0" to your spamassassin configuration file (65_xxx in the /etc/spamassassin directory).

Since you are using Ubunutu, in your /etc/spamassassin directory, you should have a set of files, including one called local.cf. The settings in local.cf will override any of the other settings, which makes this the best place to make the change (I made mine in 65_debian.cf then learned of the better method). At the bottom of that file, add the following line: score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0.0

Issue a restart to spam assassin by typing: sudo /etc/init.d/spamassassin restart. You will need the user password that you logged in under. Your problem should now be solved.

 

[cmnstr]

Thanks. I found those instructions and attempted this. However, it wasn't until I posted my first message did I realize everything is running in a virtual machine. I guess my real problem know is how to edit a XEN VM. I do appreciate your quick response to my initial post.