Re: [cobalt-users] RaQ4, Squirrellmail message in Outlook

[Frostie Sprout <Frostie@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm a real novus to this, can you give me some pointer on how to install
> OpenWebmail. I have a RAQ4. Can you alert me on any complications you ran
> into during your install.  I'm trying to find an simple solution for Webmail
> if there is one.

I've found that Squirrelmail to be the easiest to use, although 
Neomail/Open Webmail are the easiest to install.

Neomail or Open Webmail, for a novice, are quite easy to install -- you can 
download the RaQ4 package of either <http://pkgmaster.com/>. Pick either of 
them following the notes on the packages (Open Webmail takes more 
processor, but has more functionality).

Squirrelmail requires you to go to the command line on the RaQ to install, 
but it is simple to use (adding the squirrelspell module is the only 
'complex' part -- that more because you have to install ispell onto the 
server).

To install Squirrelmail, download it from <http://www.squirrelmail.org/>. 
The current version is 1.2.5 (although, if you want, you could download the 
1.2.6 CVS version -- if you are really a novice, I wouldn't, although the 
1.2.6 version fixes a minor bug in 1.2.5).

Just untar the package (tar zxvf squirrelmail-1.2.5.tar.gz), read the 
README and INSTALL docs, and follow the instructions.

I normally put the squirrelmail folder in /home/sites/sitex/web/webmail so 
it is reachable as <http://site/webmail/>.

Turn on PHP for the site and then run the config script in the squirrelmail 
folder --  tell squirrelmail that it is using a uw IMAP server and just 
fill in the remaining information that it asks for.

That's it -- all of the users for that site now have webmail.

There is one gotcha--

> > > has hit the archives yet about SM sending a DON'T DELETE THIS
> > > MESSAGE - FOLDER INTERNAL DATA to Outlook.
> >
> > Yes it's a hopeless case, it had me switch to OpenWebMail,
> > since compiling qpopper is way too heavy a task for anyone here
> > to lay out in steps, I don't have the time to obtain all the
> > necessary knowledge for just one stupid compile and then
> > forget about it entirely because you never need
> > that knowledge for anything anymore.


This is a problem that you'll find with Squirrelmail -- folks that switch 
between IMAP/POP/Webmail access will continue to find a message "DON'T 
DELETE THIS MESSAGE - FOLDER INTERNAL DATA" when they use POP3 to access 
their email -- you can safely delete the message, but it does cause 
confusion and IMAP access to the folder does get odd because of excessive 
folder reading. It is an artifact of the University of Washington (uw) IMAP 
server that the RaQ uses.

It is possible to setup the server so that a user can switch between 
POP3/IMAP/Webmail interfaces and _never_ see the "DON'T DELETE ..." message ---

--- But you have to recompile the POP3 server so that it ignores these 
messages (as stated in previous messages). Qpopper (the POP3 server used on 
the RaQ) has a compile time option to ignore these messages. This does 
require, however, more than a novice's expertise in UNIX. For those that 
want to take this route, I downloaded the SRPMS for qpopper from 
<ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/products/raq3/SRPMS/qpopper-3.0.2-C6.src.rpm> 
(yes, it's in the RaQ3 directory for either the RaQ3 or RaQ4) and then 
looked at the compile options used for Qpopper -- I then compiled my own 
qpopper using those same options, but added the '--enable-uw-kludge' flag 
(actually, I also disabled the PAM authentication in my qpopper as well -- 
I was having some speed issues that this fixed). The same update procedure 
can also be used if you want to update qpopper to version 4.

For those wanting to know more on compile time options of qpopper, read the 
docs on qpopper at <ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/eudora/servers/unix/popper/> or 
<http://www.eudora.com/qpopper/>.

As for a hopeless task -- it isn't. With the compile time options that are 
in the SRPMS from cobalt, you can be assured that you have a POP3 daemon 
that works correctly with the POP before SMTP script on the RaQ. The only 
real problem, then, is telling inetd to use the new qpopper daemon instead 
of the original. Look at /etc/inetd.conf for the pop3 line, copy the new 
qpopper daemon into the same directory as the current pop3 daemon but as a 
different name, and then build a new pop3 line in the inetd.conf file for 
the new qpopper daemon making sure that you use the same run-time switches. 
Comment out the old pop3 line (just in case we need to use it again) and 
restart inetd (either with the /etc/rc.d/init.d/inetd restart command or 
with killall -HUP inetd). You should then be using the new qpopper daemon.

As an alternative, you could (although I have not tested this) alter the 
inetd.conf pop3 line to read:

        ... in.qpopper -R -f /etc/qpopper.conf

And in the /etc/qpopper.conf file have the line:
        uw-kludge

I have not used this, nor do I know if it works in Qpopper 3.0.2 (it should 
in Qpopper 4.0.4). According to the man page for 3.0.2, the -f option is 
not available, but it wouldn't hurt to try... This would be a way to avoid 
having to recompile qpopper. If you try this, make sure that the 
/etc/qpopper.conf file is not world writable. You folks at Cobalt/Sun 
should look at updating Qpopper so that these hacks could be done...

That's all there is to fixing Qpopper so that users who switch between POP3 
and IMAP (and IMAP based webmail) don't get the IMAP message.

There is one thing I will do in the future when I recompile Qpopper again 
-- I'll set it so that APOP users can use APOP or POP so that any user set 
to use APOP in the web interface can use both methods.

--
Frostie Sprout
Vice President -- Technology
wyoming.com
(307) 856-6400 x161