Webmail Squirrelmail for Debian

Squirrelmail requires an IMAP server to be installed.


1) Dovecot seems to be the easiest package.

Instructions to set up dovecot:
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/275

The main changes in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

protocols = imap imaps
imap_listen = localhost (only localhost because only squirrelmail will be using imap)
imaps_listen = localhost
default_mail_env =	(leave empty due to using the /var/spool/mail/userid structure)

then restart dovecot.

To test:
mutt -f imap://username@localhost

2) Squirrelmail

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/200

apt-get the package and install.
It has an installer which is pretty easy to configure. 
If you need to reconfigure it
/var/www/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl

Use sendmail to send the mail, not smtp.
Under 4, General Options, you can make some tweaks. Be sure to set option 11, allow server-side sorting. This greatly improves SquirrelMail performance and works with nearly all IMAP servers

Then set up a virtual host in apache to go to /var/www/squirrelmail. (Debian does the following:

------------------
Alias /squirrelmail /usr/share/squirrelmail

<Directory /usr/share/squirrelmail>
  php_flag register_globals off
  php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 28800
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
  <IfModule mod_dir.c>
    DirectoryIndex index.php
  </IfModule>

  # access to configtest is limited by default to prevent information leak
  <Files configtest.php>
    order deny,allow
    deny from all
    allow from 127.0.0.1
  </Files>
</Directory>

# users will prefer a simple URL like http://webmail.example.com
<VirtualHost webmail.euhost.nl>
  DocumentRoot /usr/share/squirrelmail
  ServerName webmail.euhost.nl
</VirtualHost>

# redirect to https when available (thanks omen@descolada.dartmouth.edu)
#
#  Note: There are multiple ways to do this, and which one is suitable for
#  your site's configuration depends. Consult the apache documentation if
#  you're unsure, as this example might not work everywhere.
#
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  <IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <Location /squirrelmail>
      RewriteEngine on
      RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !^on$ [NC]
      RewriteRule . https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}  [L]
    </Location>
  </IfModule>
</IfModule>
-------------------------------

to which I added php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 28800 to stop the system from chucking you out all the time

If using suphp chown userid:groupid /var/www/squirrelmail/ -R
(both user and group > 100)
make sure the attachments dir is rw for www-data / httpd

in /etc/squirrelmail/default_pref add
left_refresh=600
to stop the system from throwing you out too quickly.