Unable to send emails with PHP scripts or Plesk notifications: /usr/sbin/sendmail No such file or directory

Renan Poss Moreira

Updated January 13, 2026 19:07

Plesk for Linux kb: technical

Applicable to:

Unable to send emails with PHP scripts in Plesk with the following error in the log file /var/log/plesk-php*-fpm/error.log:

# egrep -Ri sendmail /var/log/plesk-php*-fpm/error.log
WARNING: [pool example.com] child 29450 said into stderr: "sh: /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory"
Plesk notifications, like an activation email, are not sent and the following error is shown in the log file/var/log/plesk/panel.log file:

CONFIG_TEXT: ERR [panel] Unable to send mail: Unknown error
ERR [panel] Failed to send activation link due to: Unable to send mail: Unknown error
Tools and Settings > Mail Server Settings shows that the installed mail server is Qmail

The Plesk Qmail wrapper exists:

# ls -lha /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/qmail-sendmail-wrapper
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 108K Apr 14 10:33 /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/qmail-sendmail-wrapper

Sendmail symlinks to the Plesk Qmail wrapper are missing or invalid

- Sendmail does not point to the /etc/alternatives/mta

# ls -l /usr/sbin/sendmail
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Jan 29 13:35 /usr/sbin/sendmail

- Sendmail symlink does not exist

# ls -lha /usr/sbin/sendmail
ls: cannot access /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory

Connect to the server via SSH
Unlink symlinks:

# unlink /etc/alternatives/mta
# unlink /usr/sbin/sendmail
Create correct symlinks:

# ln -s /etc/alternatives/mta /usr/sbin/sendmail
# ln -s /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/qmail-sendmail-wrapper /etc/alternatives/mta

Comments

1 comment

Ehud Ziegelman
June 04, 2023 00:29 (Edited June 04, 2023 00:33)
Hi Renan Poss Moreira,

May I ask, how may I recreate the link when using Postfix?

Would it be:
```
unlink /usr/sbin/sendmail
ln -s /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix-wrapper /usr/sbin/sendmail
```
Any service restart required? The CLI?
0

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