1. Install the requirements using the command below.

yum install mysql-server php-pear-DB

2. Start the mysqld service. Learn how to start and stop services here.

3. Launch the MySQL command line tool using the command below.

mysql -u root -p

The default root password of MySQL is a blank password. Next, create a new MySQL database for SquirrelMail using the commands below.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE squirrelmail;
mysql> CREATE USER squirrelmail@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON squirrelmail.* TO squirrelmail;
mysql> USE squirrelmail;
mysql> CREATE TABLE address (
  owner varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  nickname varchar(16) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  firstname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  lastname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  email varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  label varchar(255),
  PRIMARY KEY (owner,nickname),
  KEY firstname (firstname,lastname)
);
mysql> CREATE TABLE global_abook (
  owner varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  nickname varchar(16) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  firstname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  lastname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  email varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  label varchar(255),
  PRIMARY KEY (owner,nickname),
  KEY firstname (firstname,lastname)
);

4. Configure SquirrelMail the command below.

/usr/share/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl

Select menu 9, Database and update the values of the following.

• DSN for Address Book : mysql://squirrelmail:password@localhost/squirrelmail
• DSN for Global Address Book : mysql://squirrelmail:password@localhost/squirrelmail
• Allow writing into Global Address Book : true
• Allow listing of Global Address Book : true

Then save your changes. Your address book should now be stored in MySQL.

Configuring SquirrelMail

1. From a Terminal window, type in /usr/share/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl and press Enter. This will launch the SquirrelMail Configuration utility.

If your Terminal window has a white background, make sure that the colors are off by looking for the command Turn color on. If the command is Turn color off, type in C and press Enter to turn the colors off. This will ensure that you will be able to read all of the text.

2. Type in 1 and press Enter to select the Organization Preferences menu.

3. Update the options to suit your needs. For the logo, put it into the /usr/share/squirrelmail/images/ directory. Save your changes when you are done.

4. Try out the result.

Install the SquirrelMail Change Password Plugin

1. Install the Poppassd service.

2. Connect to your SquirrelMail server and note down its version.

3. Download the Change Passwd 4.2f and Compatibility 2.0.x plugins.

4. Extract the downloaded files and put them into the /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins directory.

The SquirrelMail Change Password and Compatibility archives has to be extracted directly into the SquirrelMail plugin directory to enable Linux to apply the proper SELinux Context into the files. See the SquirrelMail RetrieveUserData plugin if you need help on how to do it.

5. From a Terminal window, type in /usr/share/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl and press Enter. This will launch the SquirrelMail Configuration utility.

If your Terminal window has a white background, make sure that the colors are off by looking for the command Turn color on. If the command is Turn color off, type in C and press Enter to turn the colors off. This will ensure that you will be able to read all of the text.

6. Type in 8 and press Enter to list the Plugins submenu.

7. Install the change_passwd plugin by typing in the number corresponding to it and press Enter. When you are done, type in q and press Enter to quit then type in y and press Enter to save your changes.

8. If your version of SquirrelMail is not 1.4.13 and higher or 1.5.1 and higher, you need to patch your SquirrelMail source. Go to /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins/compatibility and apply the compatibility patch by typing in the commands below.

cd /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins/compatibility/
patch -p0 < patches/compatibility_patch-1.4.8.diff

Replace 1.4.8 with your SquirrelMail version.

9. In the /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins/change_passwd directory, copy the file config.php.sample and save it as config.php. Edit config.php and review the default settings.

Below are settings in config.php you may wish to change

• $minimumPasswordLength - Minimum length of the password.
• $changePasswdInLogin - Change password from the login form.

Test the SquirrelMail Change Password

1. Login to SquirrelMail and go to the Options page. You should see the new Change Password section.

2. Click the Change Password link to view the new Change Password page.

Install the SquirrelMail Postfix Admin Plugin

1. Download the squirrelmail-postfixadmin plugin.

2. Double click the downloaded file to launch the Archive Manager.

3. Click the Extract button to launch the Extract window.

4. Change the destination folder by clicking on Desktop. In the popup menu, select Other….

5. Click the notepad button and in the Location field type in /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins/ and click Open.

6. Click the Extract button to start extracting.

The SquirrelMail PostfixAdmin archive has to be extracted directly into the SquirrelMail plugin directory to enable Linux to apply the proper SELinux Context into the files.

Configure the SquirrelMail Postfix Admin Plugin

If you are not actually using Postfix Admin, make sure you have configured the domain in SquirrelMail.

1. From a Terminal window, type in /usr/share/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl and press Enter. This will launch the SquirrelMail Configuration utility.

If your Terminal window has a white background, make sure that the colors are off by looking for the command Turn color on. If the command is Turn color off, type in C and press Enter to turn the colors off. This will ensure that you will be able to read all of the text.

2. Type in 8 and press Enter to list the Plugins submenu.

3. Install the postfixadmin plugin by typing in the number corresponding to it and press Enter. When you are done, type in q and press Enter to quit then type in y and press Enter to save your changes.

4. Type in the command below to install the required dependency for this plugin.

yum install php-pear-MDB2-Driver-mysql

5. In the /usr/share/squirrelmail/plugins/postfixadmin directory, copy the file config.sample.php and save it as config.php. Edit config.php and set the items below to the same values as your PostfixAdmin configuration.

$CONF['database_host']
$CONF['database_user']
$CONF['database_password']
$CONF['database_name']

The settings $AllowForwarding and $AllowChangePass can be set to true only if you are using Postfix Admin to manage your Postfix mail server.

6. Login to SquirrelMail and click Options, you should now see the new Auto Response section.

7. Congratulations, it works.

The plugin only sets the vacation message of the user, Postfix has to be configured to handle vacation messages.

History

Version 0.9-1.4.3

Released on July 25, 2009
[ download ]

• Fixed the bug that occurs when RetrieveUserData is used with the ChangePassword plugin.

Version 0.9-1.4.2

Released on June 7, 2009
[ download ]

• Domain name for Linux system accounts are now retrieved from the setting in SquirrelMail instead of being derived using the hostname command.
• Added option to disable LDAP referral chasing.

Version 0.9-1.4.1

Released on November 15, 2008
[ download ]

• Fixed Linux system account retrieval by detecting the domain name hostname command.
• Added option to set LDAP protocol version.
• Optimized the settings saving by.

Howtos

How to install the Retrieve User Data plugin in SquirrelMail

Generate a Private Key

Make sure you are logged in as the root user when doing steps below.

1. Generate a pass phrase protected private key using the command below. Provide a pass phrase when asked.

openssl genrsa -des3 -out localhost.key 1024

2. Remove the pass phrase protection using the command below. Provide the pass phrase when asked.

openssl rsa -in localhost.key -out localhost.key

3. Type in the command below to ensure that the private key will be readable by the root user only.

chmod 400 localhost.key

Generate a Certificate

1. Generate a certificate signing request by typing in the command below and filling in your host information.

openssl req -new -key localhost.key -out localhost.csr

Signing options

• For a publicly accessible site, have it signed by a reputable third party like Verisign
• For Active Directory intranets, you can sign it using the Microsoft Certificate Services. Learn how to submit a certificate request to the Microsoft Certificate Services.
• For intranets or testing sites, you can sign it yourself.

To self sign your certificate request, type in the command below.

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in localhost.csr
 -signkey localhost.key -out localhost.crt

Configuring Apache for SSL

1. Move the file localhost.key into /etc/pki/tls/private/

mv localhost.key /etc/pki/tls/private/

2. Place the certificate file into /etc/pki/tls/certs/ and name the file as localhost.crt. The command below applies to self-signed certificate only.

mv localhost.crt /etc/pki/tls/certs/

3. Edit the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf and edit the lines below.

DocumentRoot = /usr/share/squirrelmail
ServerName = mail.acme.local:443

Replace mail.acme.local with your server name.

4. Restart the httpd service. Learn how to restart services here.

5. Try accessing SquirrelMail using https instead of http.

You can force browsers to always use the SSL version. See Relocating SquirrelMail into the domain root.

History

Version 4.2f

Released on July 19, 2009
[ download ]    Requires: SquirrelMail 1.2.8, Compatibility plugin

• Added support for poppassd
• Changed default password changer to poppassd

Version 4.2e

Released on January 4, 2009
[ download ]    Requires: SquirrelMail 1.2.8, Compatibility plugin

• Removed current password checking on SquirrelMail. The backend will now be the one doing it.

Version 4.2d

Released on November 15, 2008
[ download ]    Requires: SquirrelMail 1.2.8, Compatibility plugin

• Removed SSL certificate requirement when changing password in Active Directory
• Plugin translation problem has been fixed

Version 4.2c

Released on August 9, 2008
[ download ]    Requires: SquirrelMail 1.2.8, Compatibility plugin

• Updated chpasswd.c code to eliminate compiler warnings

Version 4.2b

Released on May 23, 2008
[ download ]    Requires: SquirrelMail 1.2.8, Compatibility plugin

• Reduced dependence on config.php
• Chpasswd now updates the last password change date

Version 4.2

Released on May 17, 2008
[ download ]    Requires: SquirrelMail 1.2.8, Compatibility plugin

• Updated to use Compatibility 2.x
• Added option to change password from the login page
• Added support for Active Directory password change
• Added support for LDAP password change

Howtos

• Install the Change Password plugin
• Configure for use with Active Directory server
• Configure for use with LDAP server

Screenshots

Login

SquirrelMail Options

Change Password