Thunderbird as client for Microsoft Exchange 2010 server on Ubuntu 11.10

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A couple of days ago I posted a howto on running Thunderbird on Ubuntu 11.04 (64bit) as a fully functional client for the Microsoft Exchange 2010 server. This is the version for Ubuntu 11.10 (64 bit).

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Thanks to a link posted by tanstaalf to a French project named DavMail, I was finally able to connect to my company’s Microsoft Exchange 2010 server from my beloved Mozilla Thunderbird client. The solution lies in installing an Exchange gateway called DavMail. I run this on my localhost, but this can naturally be set up on any host. I can verify connecting successfully to the following services: Email, Calendar and Directory.

Install DavMail on Ubuntu 11.10 (64 bit)

Looking for the instructions for Ubuntu 11.04? Click here.

The sun-java6-* packages are not available in neither Debian’s nor Ubuntu’s repositories: Oracle Java (JVM/JDK) will not be available in the Debian / Ubuntu repositories anymore because Oracle retired the “Operating System Distributor License for Java” (JDL) and the only release available in the repositories will be OpenJDK.

A solution to this problem is to manually install OpenJDK and the SWT:

$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre libswt-gtk-3-java

If you still want the Oracle (Sun) version, you can follow this HOWTO.

Download and install DavMail (Note, this is not an official package):

$ wget -O davmail_3.9.7-1870-1_all.deb "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/davmail/davmail/3.9.7/davmail_3.9.7-1870-1_all.deb?r=&ts=1327002026&use_mirror=dfn"
$ sudo dpkg -i davmail_3.9.7-1870-1_all.deb

DavMail is now installed. Let’s configure it.

Configure DavMail

Now, start DavMail from the main menu:

Press , and type "davmail"

You should now see an icon in your system tray that looks like this:

Right click on the icon, choose settings and set the URL to your OWA (Exchange) server (e.g.https://webmail.mycompany.com/exchange/):

Save, and DavMail is ready to go. You can check out the logs by right clicking on the icon and selecting “Show logs”.

DavMail is made to work for any email client. Here are the instructions for Thunderbird.

Thunderbird 8.0

In Ubuntu 11.10, Thunderbird is the default email client, so you don’t need to install it.

Set up new email account

Open Thunderbird and configure your email servers like this:

Your Username must be in the following form: DOMAIN\USER

The email client will complaint that you are using an insecure connection to the server, but that’s allright, as it runs on localhost.

Configure an existing account

In Thunderbird, go to Edit -> Account Settings, and edit the Server settings, so they look like this:

Your Username must be in the following form: DOMAIN\USER

Also, edit the SMTP server settings, so they look like this:

Your Username must be in the following form: DOMAIN\USER

Set up calendar

Install the Lightning 1.0b7 extension via from Tools -> Addons -> Extensions in Thunderbird. Restart Thunderbird, and open the Calendar.

Add a new calendar and use a URL like this: http://localhost:1080/users/<YOUR FULL EMAIL ADDRESS>/calendar :

Important note! If you leave the Email set to None, no invitations will be sent to other participants when you arrange meetings.

Set up Directory Service (Active Directory)

Open up the Address book in Thunderbird and add a new LDAP directory like this:

Note: The Bind DN must be in the following form: DOMAIN\USER

Set up personal address book

Based on what I can gather from the DavMail pages, it seems that the way to sync a personal address book through DavMail is to use SOGo Connector Thunderbird extension.

Unfortunately, the sOGO extension is not compatible with any version of Thunderbird later than 3.

But not to worry, I have built the SOGo extension for all versions of Thunderbird between 3.0 and 9.0 on a 64 bit platform. Just do this:

  1. Download and install the this file: http://www.zaera-holo.net/static/files/sogo-connector-9.108.xpi
  2. Follow this howto: http://davmail.sourceforge.net/thunderbirdcarddavsetup.html

Troubleshooting

If you experience getting two emails in your Sent folder, simply go to the DAVMAIL settings, in TAB advanced, and uncheck the : “SMTP save in Sent” checkbox.

References

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66 thoughts on “Thunderbird as client for Microsoft Exchange 2010 server on Ubuntu 11.10”

  1. Tilbaketråkk: adhocshare | Thunderbird as client for Microsoft Exchange 2010 server on Linux

  2. Hi, very good guide!

    I have some trouble getting my LDAP to work. I have set up the LDAP directory as mentioned in your guide but my contacts are not synced.

    the log files all look good so i think this is a problem of thunderbird ?

    Versions: Ubuntu 12.10 x64 / Thunderbird 17.03

    Thank you!

    Cheers

    • When you say syched, do you expect them to show up locally on your computer? Because they won’t, but they are searchable, given that you got in touch with the LDAP server.

      Start writing a new email and enter the name of a person in the To field. Make sure that person exists in your address book on the LDAP server. Does that person’s email show up in the To-field (i.e. does the lookup work)?

      Cheers

  3. Hey. I am new to Linux and using Zorin OS. I just used these insctructions to sucessfully link Thunderbird 17.03 to My employeers MS Office 365 account. Thank you very much!

    If it works like it looks like it does to invite people to new calender appointments, and if I can figure out how to also synce my other outlook calenders I created… I may be able to stop useing M$.

  4. Hi!

    I´m using Ubuntu 12.04, Thunderbird 17.0.3, davmail 4.2.0 and Exchange 2010. Although I´ve done configuration like mentioned above, I get this errormessage:
    2013-02-27 14:21:01,490 DEBUG [ImapConnection-34766] davmail.exchange.ExchangeSession – 404 Not Found at /ews/exchange.asmx
    2013-02-27 14:21:01,576 ERROR [ImapConnection-34766] davmail.exchange.ExchangeSession – Invalid URL: null
    2013-02-27 14:21:01,576 ERROR [ImapConnection-34766] davmail.exchange.ExchangeSession – 404 Not Found at /ews/exchange.asmx
    2013-02-27 14:21:01,576 ERROR [ImapConnection-34766] davmail.exchange.ExchangeSession – EWS end point not available
    2013-02-27 14:21:01,576 ERROR [ImapConnection-34766] davmail – EWS end point not available
    davmail.exception.DavMailAuthenticationException: EWS end point not available
    at davmail.exchange.ews.EwsExchangeSession.buildSessionInfo(EwsExchangeSession.java:238)
    at davmail.exchange.ExchangeSession.(ExchangeSession.java:234)
    at davmail.exchange.ews.EwsExchangeSession.(EwsExchangeSession.java:140)
    at davmail.exchange.ExchangeSessionFactory.getInstance(ExchangeSessionFactory.java:150)
    at davmail.exchange.ExchangeSessionFactory.getInstance(ExchangeSessionFactory.java:94)
    at davmail.imap.ImapConnection.run(ImapConnection.java:113)
    2013-02-27 14:21:01,576 DEBUG [ImapConnection-34766] davmail – > 3 NO LOGIN failed

    I think it´s related to the exchange installation. Are there any suggestions how to solve this?

    THX!

    • Hello, raal01;

      As far as I can tell from the error messages, the Exchange Server you’re trying to connect to does not have EWS configured on the URL you have configured.

      In my logs, I can see this:

      2013-02-27 16:08:27,294 DEBUG [davmail.imap.ImapServer] davmail – Connection from /127.0.0.1 on port 1143
      2013-02-27 16:08:27,295 DEBUG [ImapConnection-59132] davmail.http.DavGatewayHttpClientFacade – get Default proxy selector
      2013-02-27 16:08:27,295 DEBUG [ImapConnection-59132] davmail.http.DavGatewayHttpClientFacade – getProxyForURI(https://webmail.computas.com/owa/)
      2013-02-27 16:08:27,296 DEBUG [ImapConnection-59132] davmail.http.DavGatewayHttpClientFacade – got system proxies:[DIRECT]
      2013-02-27 16:08:27,304 DEBUG [ImapConnection-59132] davmail.exchange.ExchangeSession – Test configuration status: 302
      2013-02-27 16:08:27,304 DEBUG [ImapConnection-59132] davmail – > * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4REV1 AUTH=LOGIN MOVE] IMAP4rev1 DavMail 4.1.0-2042 server ready
      2013-02-27 16:08:27,305 DEBUG [ImapConnection-59132] davmail – 1 OK Authenticated

      Please make sure with your sysadmins that EWS is configured on the server side.

  6. Tilbaketråkk: Thunderbird como cliente para el servidor Microsoft Exchange 2010 (en Ubuntu 12.04) | Ad-hoc knowledge

  8. Tilbaketråkk: Microsoft Exchange Vs. Linux « Support Banter

  9. Thank you for providing this solution for Mac users on Exchange 2010 Servers. I have experienced one problem that maybe you have seen and/or have a solution for:
    When sending mail with rather large attachments the copy being sent to my “sent mail” folder on the Exchange Server is timing out. I do receive a notification that the mail has been send but a copy has not been saved. If I select “try again” to save it also resends the message. After repeated attempts, the message will finally be saved but the recipient of the e-mail has received multiple copies. Any suggestions?

      • I tried a different folder on the Exchange Server. It works fine for e-mails with small or no attachments. Is it possible I’ll need to have my IT Dept change some settings on the server? I haven’t ask them to yet because they are telling me they won’t support Thunderbird or DavMail. They want me to go buy MS Office for MAC 2011 which now includes Outlook (but not the same as the PC Outlook, just a revised version of Entourage that will work with Exchange Server 2010). I’m quite happy with your solution for using Thunderbird. I just have that one little glitch :-(

      • Hello, DeMus;

        sorry for the bother, but yes, the files in question are on my home server, and it’s been down for a while due to upgrading issues.

        Did the files you found work for you?

        • Ah, that’s the reason. No problem, the file I found works so finally I have my company’s e-mail in Thunderbird on Linux.
          I do have one problem though and maybe you can help me with this: when I sent an e-mail using that account, the mail is sent twice (same content, same time) Any idea how and why?
          I can not find anything wrong in my settings.

          • A test e-mail to my private address shows me that it arrives only once. Still in the sent items folder of the MAPI account I see two mails. Why? What am I doing wrong?

            • Okay, I have found it. In the DAVMAIL settings, in TAB advanced, is an item called : “SMTP save in Sent” The tickbox was ticked. I removed the tick and now it is okay.
              Very sorry for messing up your website. Just throw away these messages if you like.
              Thank you again for your help, really appreciate it.

  12. Tilbaketråkk: FOSS Alternatives - Christian Forums

  15. Thank you very much! It works here with following conf: Evolution 2.30.3. Server: Exchange 2010. Mail works, Calendar works, Address Book works! Perfect!!

  16. Thanks very much for your creation.
    But I seem to have a problem – I have installed Oracle Java (JDK 7), which is listed in your instructions as an alternate, but it seems that the package is dependent on openjdk. What am I missing? Am I supposed to have both installed? That would seem strange as in any case there is the utility to choose which java the system should use.
    I am brand new to Linux so please forgive me if I am asking silly questions.

  17. Gustavo – is there a way Davmail and Thunderbird 8 can sync Personal Address book on the Exchange Server? Not only the LDAP Active Directory?

  18. Had my doubts, have always been an Evolution fan, but am now a Thunderbird convert!!! Excellent instructions, thanks heaps GUSTAVO!!!

  19. Thanks for this – works very well – I wished I had found this a few days ago! It doesn’t seem possible to include an image in my signature – I think this is something davmail doesn’t support? does anyone know of any work around to this?

    thanks

    Rob

  22. Tilbaketråkk: Thunderbird as client for Microsoft Exchange 2010 server « Ad-hoc knowledge

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