How to Install Horde on Arch Linux

Horde is an open-source web-based groupware tool. It is developed in PHP and designed to work seamlessly with mail servers such as IMAP and POP3. In this tutorial, we will go through the process of installing Horde on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation, please ensure that you have the following:

Access to a terminal window as a non-root user with sudo access.
A working Apache web server with PHP.
A functional mail server, preferably Dovecot or Courier.

Step 1: Update and Upgrade your System

Before installing any packages, update and upgrade your Arch Linux system by running the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install Horde

To install Horde on Arch Linux, you can either download the tarball from the Horde website and extract it into the Apache webroot, or install it using the package manager.

To install Horde using the package manager, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S horde

This command will install the Horde packages and its dependencies.

Step 3: Configure Apache

To use Horde, we need to configure our Apache webserver to serve Horde. Open the Apache configuration file located at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf with your favorite text editor and add the following line to the end of the file:

Include conf/extra/php7_module.conf

Save and close the file. This configuration will load the PHP7 module, which is required by Horde.

Next, create a new virtual host for Horde by creating a new configuration file /etc/httpd/conf/extra/horde.conf with your text editor:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/extra/horde.conf

Add the following configuration in the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName horde.example.com
    DocumentRoot /usr/share/webapps/horde/

    <Directory "/usr/share/webapps/horde/">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace horde.example.com with your own domain name.

Save and close the file. This configuration defines a virtual host for Horde, sets the document root to /usr/share/webapps/horde/, and allows Apache to override any configuration files within the directory.

Step 4: Start Apache and Create Symbolic Links

Start the Apache webserver by running the following command:

sudo systemctl start httpd

Horde requires the creation of symbolic links, which can be done using the following command:

sudo ln -s /etc/webapps/horde/apache.conf /etc/httpd/conf/extra/horde.conf
sudo ln -s /usr/share/webapps/horde /srv/http/horde

This command creates symbolic links to /etc/webapps/horde/apache.conf and /usr/share/webapps/horde directories.

Step 5: Configure Horde

To configure Horde, we first need to copy the configuration file:

sudo cp /usr/share/webapps/horde/conf.php.dist /usr/share/webapps/horde/conf.php

Next, open the configuration file for editing:

sudo nano /usr/share/webapps/horde/conf.php

In the configuration file, update the following parameters:

$conf['mailer']['params']['host'] = 'localhost';
$conf['mailer']['params']['port'] = null;
$conf['mailer']['params']['username'] = null;
$conf['mailer']['params']['password'] = null;
$conf['mailer']['params']['auth'] = false;

This configuration will set the mail server's hostname to localhost and disable authentication.

Save and close the file.

Step 6: Restart Apache

Restart the Apache webserver to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 7: Accessing Horde

You can now access Horde by visiting http://horde.example.com/ in your web browser, where horde.example.com is the domain name set in the Apache virtual host configuration.

You should see the Horde login page. Enter the username and password for the mailbox that you want to access.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Horde on Arch Linux.