Installing OpenWebMail in Slackware64 14.0

This article explains how to install OpenWebmail and configure it so that you can access your mailbox using a web interface from any place with internet access and a webbrowser available.
These instructions were tested on Slackware64 14.0 64-bit OS and the latest openwebmail-current.tar.gz (actually version 2.53)
It means, you are configured and running Apache web server and Sendmail mailserver.

Install libraries and required packages

Using CPAN via CPAN.pm:

perl -MCPAN -e shell                    [as root]
o conf prerequisites_policy ask

then:

install CGI
install Compress:Zlib
install Convert::ASN1
install Digest
install Digest::MD5
install IO::Socket::SSL
install MIME::Base64
install Net::SSLeay
install Text::Iconv

quit

Install OpenWebMail

First, download latest openwebmail: openwebmail-current.tar.gz
Create a directory wherever you want it, say “/ADISKS/openwebm_inst” and move the downloaded file “openwebmail-current.tar.gz” into that directory.
Extract all files using the command
```
tar -zxvBpf openwebmail-current.tar.gz
```
Use “tar” with “-zxvBpf” option, due to strange file permissions inside that archive. I tried to untar it via midnight comander built-in archive tools, ans the wrapsuid script would not work because of this…
Move the extracted directory “cgi-bin/openwebmail” to “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail”
Move the extracted directory “data/openwebmail” to your webserver's DocumentRoot (in a default Apache configuration, that will be “/var/www/openwebmail”)
Change directory to “/var/www/openwebmail”, delete the file index.html and run the command
```
ln -s redirect.html index.html
```

Change directory to “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail” and run the command

perl misc/tools/wrapsuid/wrapsuid.pl /var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail

You should see the following output:

Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-folder.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-main.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-read.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-send.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-cal.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-webdisk.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-advsearch.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-abook.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-viewatt.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-vdomain.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-saprefs.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-prefs.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-tool.pl
Fixing /tmp/openwebmail/cgi-bin/openwebmail/openwebmail-spell.pl

Then go to “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail/etc” and edit the configuration files:

Change “openwebmail.conf” according to:

domainnames             auto                                                                                                                                
auth_module             auth_unix.pl                                                                                                                        
mailspooldir            /var/spool/mail                                                                                                                     
ow_cgidir               /var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail                                                                                                        
ow_cgiurl               /cgi-bin/openwebmail                                                                                                                
ow_htmldir              /var/www/openwebmail                                                                                                                
ow_htmlurl              /                                                                                                                                   
logfile                 /var/log/openwebmail.log

Change directory to “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail/etc/defaults”, edit auth_unix conf to become

passwdfile_plaintext    /etc/passwd                                                                                                                         
passwdfile_encrypted    /etc/shadow                                                                                                                         
passwdmkdb              none

In directory “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail/etc/defaults”, edit db.conf as follows:

dbm_ext                 .db                                                                                                                                 
dbmopen_ext             .db                                                                                                                                 
dbmopen_haslock         no

Then, change directory to “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail” and run
```
./openwebmail-tool.pl --init
```

After that, go to “/var/www/cgi-bin/openwebmail”, check that there are files starting with a dot (like “.openwebmail.pl”) and old-style filenames (like “openwebmail.pl)”. Set the suid bit for these scripts:
```
chmod u+s openwebmail*.pl
chmod u+s .openwebmail*.pl
```

Apache additional configuration

Add a AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl option in /etc/httpd/httpd.conf in section “Directory /srv/httpd/” httpd.conf like be:

ServerRoot "/usr"
Listen 80

LoadModule authn_file_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_file.so
LoadModule authn_core_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authn_core.so
LoadModule authz_host_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_host.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_user_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_user.so
LoadModule authz_core_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_authz_core.so
LoadModule access_compat_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_access_compat.so
LoadModule auth_basic_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule reqtimeout_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_reqtimeout.so
LoadModule filter_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_filter.so
LoadModule mime_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule log_config_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule env_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_env.so
LoadModule headers_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_headers.so
LoadModule setenvif_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_setenvif.so
LoadModule version_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_version.so
LoadModule proxy_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_connect_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_connect.so
LoadModule proxy_ftp_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
LoadModule proxy_scgi_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so
LoadModule proxy_ajp_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
LoadModule proxy_express_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_express.so
LoadModule lbmethod_byrequests_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_byrequests.so
LoadModule lbmethod_bytraffic_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_bytraffic.so
LoadModule lbmethod_bybusyness_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_lbmethod_bybusyness.so
LoadModule mpm_event_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_mpm_event.so
LoadModule unixd_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_unixd.so
LoadModule status_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_status.so
LoadModule autoindex_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_autoindex.so
##openwebmail!
LoadModule cgi_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_cgi.so
LoadModule dir_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_dir.so
LoadModule alias_module lib64/httpd/modules/mod_alias.so

<IfModule unixd_module>
User apache
Group apache

</IfModule>

# 'Main' server configuration
#
# The directives in this section set up the values used by the 'main'
# server, which responds to any requests that aren't handled by a
# <VirtualHost> definition.  These values also provide defaults for
# any <VirtualHost> containers you may define later in the file.
ServerAdmin webmaster@sten.lv

ServerName elephant.org


<Directory />
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>

DocumentRoot "/srv/httpd/"
<Directory "/srv/httpd/">

    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes MultiViews ExecCGI

    AllowOverride All
    #None

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
##    Require all granted
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
###Need! otherwise "save as binary...." appear...
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

</Directory>

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.shtml index.php
</IfModule>

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being
# viewed by Web clients.
#
<Files ".ht*">
    Require all denied
</Files>



ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/error_log"

LogLevel warn

<IfModule log_config_module>

    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common

    <IfModule logio_module>
      # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio
    </IfModule>

    #
    ##CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/access_log" common

    #
    CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/access_log" combined
</IfModule>

<IfModule alias_module>
  #
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/srv/httpd/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

<IfModule cgid_module>
    #
#    Scriptsock cgisock
</IfModule>

#
# "/srv/httpd/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased
# CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.
#
##<Directory "/srv/httpd/cgi-bin">
##    AllowOverride None
##    Options None
##    Require all granted
##</Directory>
#for openwebmail
<Directory "/srv/httpd/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride All
    Options ExecCGI
    Order Allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>


<IfModule mime_module>
    #
    TypesConfig /etc/httpd/mime.types

    #
    AddType application/x-compress .Z
    AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

    #
##    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
    # for openwebmail
##    AddHandler cgi-script .pl
    
#test openwebmail
##AddHandler server-parsed  .html
###AddHandler server-parsed  .pl

</IfModule>



# Virtual hosts
Include /etc/httpd/httpd-vhosts.conf

# Various default settings
Include /etc/httpd/extra/httpd-default.conf

# Configure mod_proxy_html to understand HTML4/XHTML1
<IfModule proxy_html_module>
Include /etc/httpd/extra/proxy-html.conf
</IfModule>

<IfModule ssl_module>
SSLRandomSeed startup builtin
SSLRandomSeed connect builtin
</IfModule>

# Deal with user agents that deliberately violate open standards
#
<IfModule setenvif_module>
BrowserMatch "MSIE 10.0;" bad_DNT
</IfModule>
<IfModule headers_module>
RequestHeader unset DNT env=bad_DNT
</IfModule>


# Uncomment the following line to enable PHP:
#
Include /etc/httpd/mod_php.conf