How to Install SOGo on Linux Mint

SOGo is a free and open-source groupware server which provides a scalable solution for your email, contacts, and calendar management. If you want to manage your email and calendar with SOGo on your Linux Mint machine, this tutorial will show you how to install SOGo on Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

• A Linux Mint Latest installation
• Root access or a user with sudo privileges

Step 1: Updating and Upgrading Packages

Before starting the installation process, it is essential to make sure that your system is up-to-date by updating and upgrading all the packages. To do this run the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2: Installing PostgreSQL

SOGo requires a PostgreSQL database to store users’ data. To install PostgreSQL on your Linux Mint machine, open the terminal and run this command:

sudo apt install postgresql

After installation, start PostgreSQL and enable it to start on system boot using the following commands:

sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Step 3: Installing SOGo

Now we can move on to the SOGo installation process. First, you need to add SOGo's repository key to your system. To do this, run the following command in the terminal:

wget -qO - https://packetfence.org/downloads/PacketFence/DEB-GPG-KEY | sudo apt-key add -

Next, add SOGo's repository to the sources list:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://packages.inverse.ca/SOGo/nightly/5/debian/ buster buster' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Then update your packages list and install SOGo using the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install sogo

Step 4: Configuring SOGo

After installation, SOGo's configuration files will be located at /etc/sogo/. In this directory, you will find the main configuration file which is sogo.conf. By default, the configuration file is optimized for a single-user setup, but if you want to add more users, you can configure it accordingly.

Before making any changes, it is a good practice to backup the original sogo.conf file:

sudo cp /etc/sogo/sogo.conf /etc/sogo/sogo.conf.bak

After that, use any text editor, such as nano or vim, to edit the sogo.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/sogo/sogo.conf

In the file, make the following changes:

SOGoTimeZone = "Europe/London";           # change to your timezone
SOGoSuperUsernames = ( "mailadmin" );    # Define your SOGo admin username.
SOGoUserSources = (                     # Add your LDAP settings or keep it commented if you want to use local users.
  {
    cnFieldName = cn;
    id = users;
    bindFields = (mail, uid);
    baseDN = "ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com";
    canAuthenticate = YES;
    displayName = "Example Users";
    hostname = "ldap://localhost:389";
    isAddressBook = YES;
    userPasswordAlgorithm = ssha;
    idFieldName = uid;
    filter = "(|(objectClass=posixAccount))";
    port = 389;
    type = ldap;
  }
);

Save the file and exit.

After making these changes, you need to restart SOGo to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart sogo

Step 5: Accessing SOGo Webmail

Now that everything is set up, you can access SOGo webmail by opening your web browser and typing http://localhost/SOGo/ in the address bar. When prompted, enter your login credentials.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have now successfully installed and configured SOGo on your Linux Mint machine. Now you can manage your email, contacts, and calendar with ease.