HOWTO Install Roundcube Webmail on Ubuntu
This little HOWTO will instruct you how to install Roundcube Webmail on Ubuntu Linux. I assume that you’ve set up an SMTP server and IMAP server locally.
First, install the package and create a symlink from your www directory to its installation directory.
sudo apt-get install roundcube-webmail
sudo ln -ls /usr/share/roundcube-webmail /var/www/roundcubeI’m doing this on Dapper (Ubuntu 6.06), so I’ve got a few extra steps to upgrade to the new version of Roundcube. If you’re using Edgy or Feisty, you can skip to the next regular text section.
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/roundcubemail/roundcubemail-0.1beta2.2.tar.gz
tar xf roundcubemail-0.1beta2.2.tar.gz
cd roundcubemail-0.1beta2.2
cp index.php /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/
cp -R program/* /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/program/
cp -R skins/default/* /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/skins/default
cp SQL/* /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/SQL/
echo >> /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/config/main.inc.php <<< EOF
<?php
$rcmail_config['skip_deleted'] = FALSE;
$rcmail_config['message_sort_col'] = 'date';
$rcmail_config['message_sort_order'] = 'DESC';
$rcmail_config['log_dir'] = 'logs/';
$rcmail_config['temp_dir'] = 'temp/';
$rcmail_config['message_cache_lifetime'] = '10d';
$rcmail_config['drafts_mbox'] = 'Drafts';
$rcmail_config['product_name'] = 'RoundCube Webmail';
$rcmail_config['read_when_deleted'] = TRUE;
$rcmail_config['enable_spellcheck'] = TRUE;
?>
EOF
echo >> /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/config/db.inc.php <<< EOF
<?php
$rcmail_config['db_max_length'] = 512000;
$rcmail_config['db_sequence_user_ids'] = 'user_ids';
$rcmail_config['db_sequence_identity_ids'] = 'identity_ids';
$rcmail_config['db_sequence_contact_ids'] = 'contact_ids';
$rcmail_config['db_sequence_cache_ids'] = 'cache_ids';
$rcmail_config['db_sequence_message_ids'] = 'message_ids';
$rcmail_config['db_persistent'] = TRUE;
$rcmail_config['db_table_messages'] = 'messages';
?>
EOFNow, to finish the installation, edit /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/config/db.inc.php and /usr/share/roundcube-webmail/config/main.inc.php to suit your needs. I’d recommend adding a prefix to the db_table_* config variables in db.inc.php. In main.inc.php, change default_host to ‘imap://localhost:143′ and smtp_server to ‘localhost’. I changed locale_string to ‘en_US’ because that’s my locale.
I’ve used Roundcube now for about two weeks and really enjoy its ultra-clean interface. It works well in the browsers I use (Firefox, IE7, Opera). It loads quickly and automatically checks for new mail. Its plug-in architecture is fairly young, but I predict that it will grow with time. I like the theme, but I’m more of a dark scheme person myself, so I may modify the theme for myself (and perhaps submit it to be included with the package).
I decided to stick with Roundcube. Squirrelmail was nice, but I didn’t need half of the features, and I wanted something that didn’t use frames so that I could use it on my mobile device (since there aren’t any free mail checking apps on Verizon’s Get-It-Now).
avs:
I know this is a late comment for your post, but I’m wondering what phone/browser you are using that allows you to use Roundcube? I’ve tried Palm, Windows Mobile and others, but not one allows me to use RoundCube correctly. I cannot select messages to read, in RoundCube with any mobile device. Curious to know what mobile device and browser you are using that you are able to view your messages?
Thanks!
23 April 2008, 10:14 amColin Dean:
Actually, I’ve never gotten into Roundcube on my phone. I’ve been unable to access the https side of my server because of some oddity in the way Verizon handles the protocol. I so rarely have to check my cad.cx email that I’ve only tried perhaps every couple of months.
However, I can confirm your problem by turning off styles and Javascript in Firefox–most phone browsers support a very limited subset of CSS and generally no Javascript.
It looks like I’m going to poke around Roundcube’s developer community to see if there’s plans to give email titles anchor tags so the system is usable on a phone.
23 April 2008, 11:34 amSami Chalwa:
The symlink command syntax instruction should be
sudo ln -s /usr/share/roundcube-webmail /var/www/roundcube
and not
sudo ln -ls /usr/share/roundcube-webmail /var/www/roundcube
4 February 2009, 2:57 am