How to Install Roundcube with Apache on Ubuntu Linux

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Roundcube is a multilingual IMAP client offering a user-friendly interface for centralizing external emails like Google and Yahoo. The article provides a tutorial on how to install Roundcube on Ubuntu with support for Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP 7.2. It also highlights Roundcube’s features and performance, as well as its simple installation and upgrade procedures.

Roundcube is a web-based multilingual IMAP client with an apps-like user interface that allows you to access all your external mailboxes from a single web interface. In addition, LAMP / LEMP support is a great way to bring all your external emails like Google, Yahoo, and other SMTP inboxes onto your server.

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install Roundcube web-mail client on Ubuntu with Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP 7.2 support.

Roundcube also comes with decent performance, simple installation and upgrade with support for IMAP and SMTP protocols (SSL, STARTTLS), sieve scripts support, integration with Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Dropbox, and many more via plugins.

For more about Roundcube, please check out its homepage. Some highlights of Roundcube:

  • Modern user interface.
  • Complete support of IMAP and SMTP protocols, including SSL and STARTTLS.
  • Sieve scripts (Filters and vacation messages).
  • Minimalistic resource requirements.
  • Multilingual capabilities
  • Find-as-you-type address book
  • Richtext/HTML message composing
  • Searching messages and contacts
  • Shared folders and ACL

When you’re ready to get Roundcube installed on Ubuntu, follow the steps below:

Install Apache2 HTTP Server

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server, so install it since Roundcube needs it. To install Apache2 HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

To test whether Apache2 is installed, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.

http://localhost

Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with Roundcube. To install MariaDB run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

  • Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
  • Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
  • New password: Enter password
  • Re-enter new password: Repeat password
  • Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
  • Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
  • Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
  • Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

Type the commands below to log on to the MariaDB server to test if MariaDB is installed.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. If successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message.

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-curl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-intl php7.2-ldap php7.2-imagick php7.2-json php7.2-cli

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Apache2.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Then save the changes on the following lines below in the file. The value below is an ideal setting to apply in your environment.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, please save the file and close it.

After installing PHP and related modules, you must restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations.

To restart Apache2, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in the Apache2 root directory by running the commands below

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Save the file. Then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

Create Roundcube Database

Once you’ve installed all the packages required for Roundcube to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank Roundcube database.

To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called roundcube

CREATE DATABASE roundcube;

Create a database user called roundcubeuser with a new password

CREATE USER 'roundcubeuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON roundcube.* TO 'roundcubeuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download and Configure Roundcube

Now that Apache2 and PHP 7.2 are installed use the steps below to download and configure the Roundcube environment on Ubuntu servers. But first, use the commands below to download the latest version.

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/releases/download/1.3.8/roundcubemail-1.3.8-complete.tar.gz

After that, create the Roundcube directory and extract the download content there.

tar -xvzf roundcubemail-1.3.8-complete.tar.gz
sudo mv roundcubemail-1.3.8 /var/www/html/roundcube

After that, run the commands below to import Roundcube database tables to initiate the database.

cd /var/www/html/roundcube
sudo mysql -u roundcubeuser -p roundcube < SQL/mysql.initial.sql

Next, configure the directory access permission for Apache2.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/roundcube/
sudo find /var/www/html/roundcube/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/html/roundcube/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

Run the commands below to create a Roundcube Apache2 configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/roundcube.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/roundcube
     ServerName example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/roundcube/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Next, run the commands below to enable Roundcube virtual host and restart Apache2.

sudo a2ensite roundcube.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2.service

Finally, open your web browser and browse the server name to access the back-end portal.

http://example.com/installer

You should see that all the checks are ok. Click Next to continue with the setup.

The next page focuses mainly on the Database, IMAP, and SMTP sections. The easiest IMAP and SMTP host to use is Google.

Google IMAP settings.

Google SMTP settings.

Finally, check if you can send a test email via your login. If everything is successful, you should be able to finish the setup. After that, use the URL below to log on to the Roundcube back-end portal.

Run the commands below to delete the installer folder.

sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/roundcube/installer

Then, log in and begin configuring Roundcube

http://example.com.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Roundcube on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 with Apache2 and PHP 7.2.

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7 responses to “How to Install Roundcube with Apache on Ubuntu Linux”

  1. Martins Avatar
    Martins

    Don’t forget about disabling default page before accessing http://example.com/installer
    sudo a2dissite 000-default

  2. donald Avatar
    donald

    Bonjour Martins, j’ai configuré parfaitement Roundcube, j’arrive à me connecter mais sauf que quand je veux envoyer un message à l’un de mes utilisateurs j’ai l’erreur suivante: SMTP Error (-1): Connection to server failed. Toutefois il faut dire que j’ai configuré mon dns interne et donc j’ai utilisé mon dns pour la messagerie (www.inptic.ga). Donc sur la deuxième étape de configuration de Roundcube j’ai mis pour smtp (www.inptic.ga au lieu de ssl://smtp.gmail.com), même chose pour imap. Et j’ai laissé le port 25 par défaut pour smtp. J’utilise Ubuntu 18.04. Avez-vous une idée sur la solution du problème?

    1. donald Avatar
      donald

      Hello Martins, I have perfectly configured Roundcube, I can connect but except that when I want to send a message to one of my users I have the following error: SMTP Error (-1): Connection to server failed. However I must say that I configured my internal dns and so I used my DNS for messaging (www.inptic.ga). So on the second step of configuring Roundcube I put for smtp (www.inptic.ga instead of ssl: //smtp.gmail.com), same thing for imap. And I left the default port 25 for smtp. I use Ubuntu 18.04. Do you have an idea about the solution of the problem?

  3. Adrián Villadangos Avatar
    Adrián Villadangos

    How can I add accounts to login?

  4. Angela Avatar
    Angela

    I’m so new to Ubuntu, this was really helpful, thank you!

  5. Manuel Avatar
    Manuel

    The source you had for the PHP 7.2 is no longer available, looked around and found this one that worked fine:

    #add-apt-repository -y ppa:jason.grammenos.agility/php

    Otherwise it worked perfectly.

    Thank you!!

    1. Gwyneth Llewelyn Avatar
      Gwyneth Llewelyn

      PHP 7.2 is deprecated anyway, and so is 7.3, that’s why it’ll become harder to find old, unsupported versions around. At the time of writing this comment, you should at least install 7.4 — the last of the PHP 7 series.

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