Author Topic: Cannot find and open roundcube  (Read 2193 times)

Offline notlurking

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Cannot find and open roundcube
« on: August 31, 2017, 11:05:33 AM »
Hello. I installed Roundcube through Ubuntu Software Center but cannot find it to open it. Help. Thanks

Offline lperkins2

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Re: Cannot find and open roundcube
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2017, 12:11:28 AM »
I'm guessing you're new to linux (welcome aboard), so if I'm wrong please don't be insulted by my answer.

The short answer is RoundCube isn't an end-user desktop application, so there is nothing to find.  If you want a good email client on a workstation or similar, I'd suggest Thunderbird.

The advantage to RoundCube is it uses a web interface, which means the Roundcube system can be set up on one computer, and any computer anywhere in the world that can access it can then be used to check your email (similar to google's gmail.com).  Unfortunately, this takes some setup.  I don't want to discourage you from pursuing it, since it's fun, and a good chance to learn.  But there are some serious security implications for setting it up, so make sure you understand what you're doing before you make it accessible to the general public.

I would also suggest removing the packaged version, it will have installed a bunch of other stuff you probably don't need with it, and doesn't really help with the setup (not to mention, you're then dependent on the package maintainers to provide updates).  If you go this route, apt-get remove roundcube, then grab roundcube off github (I had some issues with the latest 'stable' version). 

Unpack the archive wherever you want it ($HOME/roundcube is a decent choice).  Then point a cgi server at it.  You'll need to install several packages (which are probably already installed thanks to having grabbed roundcube via apt already).  The partial list is
Code: [Select]
php-sqlite3
php-xml
php-auth-sasl
php-cgi
php-mbstring
There's probably a few more I'm forgetting; let me know if you hit something you can't figure out.
For a cgi server, I recommend python-twisted-web, it's simple to start and simple to debug, plus it's flexible if you need to do something fancy.

You'll need to mark index.php executable, and add
Code: [Select]
#!/usr/bin/php-cgito the top of it.

To start the server, run:
Code: [Select]
REDIRECT_STATUS=true twistd --pidfile=/tmp/webmail.pid -n web --port=tcp:8080:interface=127.0.0.1 --path=$HOME/roundcube/ --processor=.php=twisted.web.twcgi.CGIScript -i index.php --ignore-ext=.php
Ultimately, you'll want an ssl certificate, which you can include in the above command (--help will list the options).
You can then pull up http://localhost:8080 in a web browser.  If you go to http://localhost:8080/install/index.php it should get you the installer wizard, which will let you configure the server. (use sqlite, when you get to that)
Once you get through that, remove the install folder, and edit the config files ($HOME/roundcube/config/*.php).  twisted.web.twcgi doesn't honor the .htaccess file, so you want to point everything sensitive outside of the folder (logs, temp, and your sqlite database).  Then you should be up and running.  Oh, for some reason, the github version doesn't bundle jquery.min.js inside program/js/, just grab a copy from the jquery website and stick it in there.
Anyway, I hope this is enough to get you started.  Feel free to ask for clarification if anything is fuzzy.