DavMail

=Overview=

DavMail is a gateway for Microsoft Exchange 2003/2007/2010. It allows access to the propriety Exchange resources through standard protocols: IMAP/SMTP for mail, LDAP for contacts, CalDAV for Calendar, etc. In other words, you can use it to connect to an Exchange server with any standards-compliant mail client such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Evolution, etc.

DavMail can function as a local daemon for a single workstation or a network-accessible server.

This guide is a Gentoo-focused paraphrase of the more detailed DavMail documentation available at its own website.

=Installation=

Currently, DavMail is not in the main portage tree, but is available in several overlays. If you haven't used overlays before, you'll need to install to access it.

More information on the care and feeding of overlays can be found on their own page.

This guide uses the davmail package in the sabayon overlay. It is currently keyword-masked, so you'll need to add it to unmask it in

=Setup= You can configure and run DavMail with or without its graphical interface.

X11
DavMail can be launched from within X by simply running: It will appear as an icon in the system notification area with a nice Java GUI for configuration. The config will be stored in

Simply enter the Outlook Web Access address into the space provided and you're ready to roll.

Command Line
If your system doesn't have X or you prefer to run as a service, you'll need to create the configuration file by hand. Change into the directory and create the file. Use the following example as a template and edit as needed.

At the minimum, set davmail.url to the Outlook Web Access address for your Exchange server. Adjust other properties as needed.

For your first run, you'll want to execute DavMail as follows:

It is important to see the output of the program when the first client connects to it; this is the only way you can accept an unknown certificate if necessary.

Afterwards you may run it as the DavMail server guide advises:

Init script:

and you need to change the file:

=Client Setup=

Configuring clients for the various protocols is pretty straightforward: Use localhost for the server address in a single user setup, use the DavMail server name otherwise. Listening ports are, by default, their respective protocol's standards + 1000 (e.g. 1143 for IMAP, 1025 for SMTP, etc).

Calendar
Use the following format for the CalDav URL, substituting your own values where appropriate.

https://hostname:1080/users/username@exchange.address.here/calendar

LDAP
Set your address book to:

Server: localhost

Port: 1389

Secure connection: No encryption

Login method: Using distinguished name

login: your login (domain\user)

search base: ou=people (or what you use)