cyrus-imap configuration question

[Charles Bradshaw]

I'm tying to configure cyrus-imap on a Fedora 17 system.

cyrus-imapd version cyrus-imapd.i686 2.4.14-1.fc17

I have sendmail and saslauthd working using DIGEST-MD5 and CRAM-MD5 working.

I have gone through the cyrus-imap configuration procedure, but when I try to
start the server:

# systemctl start cyrus-imapd.service
Job failed. See system journal and 'systemctl status' for details.

# systemctl status cyrus-imapd.service
cyrus-imapd.service - Cyrus-imapd IMAP/POP3 email server
	  Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cyrus-imapd.service; disabled)
	  Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:29:32 +0000;
28s ago
	 Process: 2049 ExecStartPre=/usr/lib/cyrus-imapd/cyr_systemd_helper start
(code=exited, status=75)
	  CGroup: name=systemd:/system/cyrus-imapd.service

If I start the master process manually or in debug mode:
# /usr/lib/cyrus-imapd/cyrus-master -D              (or -d)
fatal error: can't read mailboxes file
ctl_cyrusdb: unable to archive environment

At this point ps -A reports:
cyrus-master
imapd <defunct>
imapd
pop3 <defunct>
pop3d
lmtpd

Top reports imapd & pop3d are sporning and are being zombied at a rate of
about 1 second!  Surely this is not right?

Looks like the deamons are crashing imediately!

Telnet seems to connect, but there is NO imap OK .. Ready response:
$ telnet localhost 143 (or 993)
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.

The telnet connection must then be killed.

Similarly if I run imtest or cyradm both just hang.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance, Charles Bradshaw