SquirrelMail is an OpenSource powerful yet easy to use webmail interface.

Setting it up is extremely easy. Here I am going to cover just a few not so obvious aspects of the setup process.

Download Squirrel Mail installation package from here:
http://squirrelmail.org/download.php

After unpacking the package in a terminal type

 ./configure

you can easily follow the configuration wizard.

After uploading the whole directory to the server you may run

http://your-squirrelmail-location/src/configtest.php

to test the setup.

If you get this error

Warning: include_once(DB.php) [function.include-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /your/path /squirrelmail/functions/db_prefs.php on line 39
Warning: include_once() [function.include]: Failed opening 'DB.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') in /your/path /squirrelmail/functions/db_prefs.php on line 39
ERROR:
Could not include PEAR database functions required for the database backend.
Is PEAR installed, and is the include path set correctly to find DB.php?
Please contact your system administrator and report this error.

either the PEAR database is missing or the path to its executables is not correct. To install PEAR database if you have shell access just run:

sudo apt-get install php-pear-db

otherwise open a ticket with your hosting provider.

If you have chosen to memorize the user settings preferences in a database

SquirrelMail Configuration : Read: config.php (1.4.0)
---------------------------------------------------------
Main Menu --
1.  Organization Preferences
2.  Server Settings
~~~
9.  Database

Database
1.  DSN for Address Book   : mysql://user:pass@hostname/dbname
2.  Table for Address Book : address
3.  DSN for Preferences    : mysql://user:pass@hostname/dbname
4.  Table for Preferences  : userprefs
5.  Field for username     : user
6.  Field for prefs key    : prefkey
7.  Field for prefs value  : prefval
8.  DSN for Global Address Book            : mysql://user:pass@hostname/dbname
9.  Table for Global Address Book          : global_abook
10. Allow writing into Global Address Book : false
11. Allow listing of Global Address Book   : false

You may see the following error:

Preference database error (no such table). Exiting abnormally

this happens because apparently SquirrelMail does not create the database tables it needs. You have to do that by hand. The whole procedure is described here: http://squirrelmail.org/docs/admin/admin-5.html I would sum it up here for your convenience.

1. login to your phpMyAdmin interface using your username and password.
2. open the database you are willing to store the data in (you can create it). It must be the same one as reported in the mysql path shown in the examples before (over there is named dbname but whatever name is ok).
3. click on the SQL tab and paste inside these codes one by one:

for the preferences:

CREATE TABLE userprefs (
  user varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  prefkey varchar(64) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  prefval BLOB DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (user,prefkey)
);

for the addressbook:

CREATE TABLE address (
  owner varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  nickname varchar(16) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  firstname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  lastname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  email varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  label varchar(255),
  PRIMARY KEY (owner,nickname),
  KEY firstname (firstname,lastname)
);

for the global addressbook:

CREATE TABLE global_abook (
  owner varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  nickname varchar(16) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  firstname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  lastname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  email varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
  label varchar(255),
  PRIMARY KEY (owner,nickname),
  KEY firstname (firstname,lastname)
);

If you are on a budget and only have an already populated database you can change the SquirrelMail tables name. Just make sure that you change the tables names also in the configuration file!

SquirrelMail may also complain for two folders paths:

ERROR: Data dir (/var/local/squirrelmail/data/) does not exist!
ERROR: Data dir (/var/local/squirrelmail/attach/) does not exist!

You probably installed squirrelmail on a different path or are hosting your website on a shared hosting service which uses virtual hosts. You have to manually edit the

squirrelmail/config/config.php

file and search for the consecutive strings

$data_dir                 =
$attachment_dir           =

and set the correct path. Once again if you are unsure about it ask for help to your webhosting company!

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