Evolution

ReneM64 · September 16, 2010, 5:19pm

Hello,

I am probably in the wrong post / tread/ whatever.
But maybe someone can put me on the right track.

I try to configure evolution on my opensuse, for using my outlook account.
I tryed a lot, and tryed to understand a lot, but all seems to be very diffucult.

What I completely miss on the internet / documentation / everywhere
is what to enter where.
I can open in my outlook, the account settings.
But names there, are not the same names in evolution.

And what to use, mapi, imapi mapi+ whatever. I have no clue about that.

What I found today, is something about proxy. since I was unable to ping a server host with a very strange name. NLCLUEXA11.connect1.local
But I also have somewhere a exchange proxy.

Whith a https://www… url ??
and an NTLM Authentication, no idea about that.

I have no clue.

There is also an web interface, webclient, but that also seems to go wrong.

Is there any simple explanation, or just a simple tutorial, which show the outlook settings, and where to put them in the evolution settings ???

Thanks.

chief_sealth · September 16, 2010, 6:59pm

There are many tutorials on transferring Outlook files from Windows to Evolution. Just do a google search. Basically, you will need Thunderbird for Windows as a middle agent.

cjcox · September 16, 2010, 7:16pm

ReneM64 wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
> I am probably in the wrong post / tread/ whatever.
> But maybe someone can put me on the right track.
>
> I try to configure evolution on my opensuse, for using my outlook
> account.
> I tryed a lot, and tryed to understand a lot, but all seems to be very
> diffucult.
>
> What I completely miss on the internet / documentation / everywhere
> is what to enter where.
> I can open in my outlook, the account settings.
> But names there, are not the same names in evolution.
>
> And what to use, mapi, imapi mapi+ whatever. I have no clue about
> that.
>
> What I found today, is something about proxy. since I was unable to
> ping a server host with a very strange name. NLCLUEXA11.connect1.local
> But I also have somewhere a exchange proxy.
>
> Whith a https://www… url ??
> and an NTLM Authentication, no idea about that.
>
> I have no clue.
>
> There is also an web interface, webclient, but that also seems to go
> wrong.
>
>
> Is there any simple explanation, or just a simple tutorial, which show
> the outlook settings, and where to put them in the evolution settings
> ???

Well… afaik, at least up to openSUSE 11.3, without enabling IMAP or POP on
the exchange sever, your only hope is to use OWA (Outlook Web Access). So
in the evolution account setup, set for Exchange type and you’ll need the
URL to your OWA. Your local sysadmin can give this to you. As long at it’s
fairly simple auth, that is, just one username and password, the OWA should
work pretty well. I mention this because so many companies have some sort
of dual auth required now and the Evolution OWA integration won’t support
that.

Future versions of Evolution (possibly even available via a repo for
openSUSE 11.3) do have MAPI support… but I have not looked into it.

To get an address book, ideally you need to get to the Global Catalog. This
might be a totally separate host from the OWA server. You’ll probably need
to limit the GAL responses to 500 or so. That’s part of the Receiving
Options of the account setup.

At start you’ll basically be asked to authenticate to two sources, the OWA
and the Global Catalog source.

EVERY network is different, every setup is different.

I’ll just say that Evolution to Exchange won’t work if you do NOT have a
good working relationship with your Exchange admin. So… if you can’t get
this to work, don’t expect a typical Microsoft Exchange admin to help you
out.

There ARE alternatives. One, of course is to use the Outlook Web interface
to Exchange. Another is to install Outlook via wine. Another is to run
Outlook off another host and have its Window displayed on your Linux host
(e.g. Citrix style). A final heavy hammer approach is to run a full virtual
machine running Windows and Outlook… but that’s overkill IMHO.

Heremod · September 16, 2010, 7:53pm

evolution-mapi currently somewhat broken on opensuse 11.3 asfaik.
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/GNOME:/Evolution:/mapi/

Myself and few others have tried just about everything until I totally ruined an install trying to go forwards and backwards to different evolution-mapi versions. The dependencies here were the killer for me while source compiling on 11.3. With a lot of dependancy issues and compiling from source you can try newer versions of it here MAPIProvider - Evolution . http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/evolution-mapi/

Also like stated in the FAQ here MAPI FAQ - Evolution "Your mailbox is enabled for MAPI (This is a setting on the server). " I finally got it working in fedora with a lot of headache , another colleague is using an older ubuntu (can’t remember which version but the evolution-mapi in that is .28.x something.

OWA (evolution-exchange) will not work with exchange 2007+ so if you have that you are SOL.

like cjcox said its overkill, but your best bet is to have an vm with outlook (might as well install office with it too)

ReneM64 · September 16, 2010, 8:48pm

Yes, hmm, I can only conclude from all this, that the evolution on a linux machine will NOT be able to connect.

Basicly, I have no clue about what to select, but I know, the older OWA interface does not work.
If connection plain and simple to an outlook server is not possible, then I will be stuck with the standard webinterface via firefox.

I don’t have any control on the server side, since it is a big corporation, and windows only.

I still don’t know what to use, mapi mapi+ imapi, exchange mapi, what ever.
And I still don’t know where to put the exchange proxy.
But I am almost sertainly sure, there will be no extra tool on the server which would
provide something for evolution, if windows - outlook it not require.

Outlook in wine might be the best possible solution, however I don’t have any install for it.
So I have to copy this from the current present client. Not sure if that would work

Rene.

Heremod · September 16, 2010, 9:50pm

It can connect , but sometimes it is really fragile. Mail stuck in outbox for e.g all kinds of other fun too

Now if it is exchange 2007 + you will want to install the evolution-mapi package. When making your account you will want to choose the “exchange-mapi” as type. Then enter the fqdn of your mail server. your email address , your username should be your domainusername ! The domain name, and your password. Then you can authenticate and evolution will pull your mail from the exchange server. A lot of infos can be found here :
MAPIProvider - Evolution

Have I mentioned I hate exchange ?

martin_helm · September 16, 2010, 9:56pm

ReneM64 wrote:

>
> Outlook in wine might be the best possible solution, however I don’t
> have any install for it.
>
Forget about that, no chance, Outlook in wine will definitely not work. Only
chance: A full virtual machine with windows running outlook.

Or look at DavMail for exchange connections it can work with evolution.

ReneM64 · September 16, 2010, 10:25pm

Quote:“It can connect , but sometimes it is really fragile”
Maybe I am totally lost, but how can what connect ?
Do you mean outlook in wine, or evolution mapi or evolution owa.

exchange-mapi :
This is something else then evolution-mapi or mapi , mapi+ ??
I see a configured server in windows, however, I can not connect to it, not even ping works. There is a proxy configured. So I think, the real server is behind a proxy.
This proxy is an internet/intranet address. Via this construktion now I understand, why outlook can work, even when not connected on the local lan, but also on the web, since the proxy is reachable. However, if it is nessesary to have a mapi enabled on the server, and this is ONLY for evolution, the change is very slim this will work.
If mapi server is something else, other than the exchange server, which is configured in windows outlook, then it is complete impossible. I will never know, even when it is enabled, how to reach it

fqdn : Fully Qualified Domain Name.
The domainname is ABBAS1, but this is NOT the part behind the @ in my email address.
example :
email: Pieter.Mook@company.com
Windows domain: ABBAS1
Windows domain username: pty8739
Well, what goes where ???

(Password for windows login and mail are the same )

Whatever I try, when I configure OWA, and try to authenticate, I get a segmentation fault. Then I have to delete the evolution account and start over
configure a new one.

Thanks ,

Rene

ReneM64 · September 16, 2010, 10:53pm

Hmm, I just wantede to use evolution on linux. But the simple idea, seems to be very complicated !

cjcox · September 17, 2010, 12:44am

ReneM64 wrote:

>
> Hmm, I just wantede to use evolution on linux. But the simple idea,
> seems to be very complicated !
>
>

Actually, it’s VERY simple. Exchange is a CLOSED PROPRIETARY software
package. You’re really NOT supposed to “use” it.

Heremod · September 17, 2010, 4:29pm

Ill send you some screenshots in a pm , you need the evolution-mapi , and all your exchanger server infos like fqdn , and a proper dns configuration on your client . It does work but sometimes like I said fragile and not without certain issues.

Actually, it’s VERY simple. Exchange is a CLOSED PROPRIETARY software
package. You’re really NOT supposed to “use” it.

yes we all know this, but tell that to some larger companies and their policies. Sometimes we really have no choice have I mentioned I hate Exchange ?

Heremod · September 17, 2010, 4:40pm

edit 10 minutes up Also if you are using a proxy behind a secured lan to connect (correct if I am wrong here , I think outlook would use the internet explorer proxy settings to connect) So you would either need to configure proxy in gnome completely or in evolution directly.