24. Linux and The Basics: configuring Evolution for gmail or fastmail accounts

While it comes more naturally to post a blog entry when you've just managed to fix a problem which has been nagging you, it helps newcomers to the linux community if you post how-to guides for the more basic stuff.

Since I can see what search terms drive people to the blog, I get a very simplistic overview of what people are looking for but which the blog doesn't yet provide. So, here are the gmail and fastmail (http://www.fastmail.fm/) settings.

[gmail]

If you're using google apps with an address along the lines of user@domain.example, then keep the server names (i.e. smtp.gmail.com) but use the full address (user@domain.example) as the user name.

--Receiving email
server type: imap (or imap+)
server: imap.gmail.com
username youruser@gmail.com
Use secure connection: ssl
Authentication type: password

--Sending email
Server type: smtp
server: smtp.gmail.com:587
use secure: tls
type: login
username youruser@gmail.com

--Defaults
Drafts: youruser@gmail.com/Drafts
Sent: youruser@gmail.com/Sent
etc.
*******************************
[fastmail] -- fastmail has a lot of domains. Like for google apps this means you must include the domain name in the username. Here's how it's done for imap.cc


--Receiving email
server type: imap (or imap+)
server: mail.messagingengine.com
username youruser@imap.cc
Use secure connection: ssl
Authentication type: password

--Sending email
Server type: smtp
server: mail.messagingengine.com
server requires authentication: yes
use secure: tls
type: login
username youruser@imap.cc

--Defaults
Drafts: youruser@imap.cc/INBOX/Drafts
Sent: youruser@imap.cc/INBOX/Sent
etc.

23. Configuring Mutt for two IMAP accounts

Edit: fastmail configuration added -- see beneath original post

Here's my situation: I have a personal gmail account, and a google apps gmail account via my job.

A lot of the configuration stuff (gpg in particular) was copy/pasted from some website a few years ago. Kudos to them. If I only remembered who they were, I'd give credit where credit is due.

Since I'm paranoid about protecting my identitity, let's say that the google apps account is vera@hill.com and my gmail account is verahill@gmail.com (it isn't).

Here's how it can be done:
1. create ~/.mutt
2. You want to create the following files in ~/.mutt :
private.account
work.account
muttrc


Optional:
aliases

signature.private
signature.work

3. Here are the contents of the files (the passwords are from http://xkcd.com/936/):

~/.mutt/private.account:

set from=verahill@gmail.com

set hostname="gmail.com"

unset folder

set folder="imaps://verahill@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com"

set postponed="=Drafts"

set record="=Sent"

set smtp_url="smtps://verahill@gmail.com@smtp.gmail.com"

set spoolfile="imaps://imap.gmail.com/INBOX"

set from='Vera Hill <verahill@gmail.com>'

set signature="~/.mutt/signature.private"

~/.mutt/work.account:

set from=vera@hill.com

set hostname="hill.com"

unset folder

set folder="imaps://vera@hill.com@imap.gmail.com"

set smtp_url="smtps://vera@hill.com@smtp.gmail.com"

set from='Vera Hill <vera@hill.com'

set realname='Vera Hill'

set postponed="=Drafts"

set record="=Sent"

set spoolfile="imaps://imap.gmail.com/INBOX"

set signature="~/.mutt/signature.private"

basic ~/.mutt/muttrc: 

set header_cache=~/.mutt/cache/headers

set message_cachedir=~/.mutt/cache/bodies

set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates

set sort='threads'

set sort_aux='last-date-received'

set imap_check_subscribed

auto_view text/html #needs ~/.mailcap and install elinks!

set attribution="* %n <%a> wrote\a ecrit:\n"

set pager_index_lines="15" #split view 

# Make sure the inbox updates and bind a key

set timeout=15

set mail_check=60

bind index "i" imap-fetch-mail

#dual boxes specific

macro index <f3> '<sync-mailbox><enter-command>source ~/.mutt/private.account<enter><change-folder>!<enter>'

macro index <f4> '<sync-mailbox><enter-command>source ~/.mutt/work.account<enter><change-folder>!<enter>'

folder-hook 'verahill@gmail.com' 'source ~/.mutt/private.account'

folder-hook 'vera@hill.com' 'source ~/.mutt/work.account'

account-hook imaps://verahill@gmail.com 'set imap_user=verahill@gmail.com imap_pass=correcthorsebatterystaple smtp_pass=correcthorsebatterystaple'

account-hook imaps://vera@hill.com 'set imap_user=vera@hill.com imap_pass=Tr0ub4dor&3 smtp_pass=Tr0ub4dor&3'

source ~/.mutt/private.account # default account

~/.mailcap:

#allows viewing html, but requires that elinks is installed
text/html;                      elinks %s; nametemplate=%s.html
text/html;                      elinks -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput

You can do a lot more -- if you want to use an address book (aliases), create a file called ~/.mutt/aliases with each line having an alias of the format:

alias  Obama "Barak Obama" <potus@whitehouse.gov>

Add the following to the end of your muttrc:

 # Addressbook

set alias_file=~/.mutt/aliases

set sort_alias=alias

set reverse_alias=yes

source $alias_file

If you want to use GPG add this to your muttrc (anywhere) and the ID of your key is C1C2C3C4:

# GPG stuff - autosign

set pgp_decode_command="gpg %?p?--passphrase-fd 0? --no-verbose --batch --output - %f"

set pgp_verify_command="gpg --no-verbose --batch --output - --verify %s %f"

set pgp_decrypt_command="gpg --passphrase-fd 0 --no-verbose --batch --output - %f"

set pgp_sign_command="gpg --no-verbose --batch --output - --passphrase-fd 0 --armor --detach-sign --textmode %?a?-u %a? %f"

set pgp_clearsign_command="gpg --no-verbose --batch --output - --passphrase-fd 0 --armor --textmode --clearsign %?a?-u %a? %f"

set pgp_encrypt_only_command="pgpewrap gpg --batch --quiet --no-verbose --output - --encrypt --textmode --armor --always-trust --encrypt-to 0xC1C2C3C4 -- -r %r -- %f"

set pgp_encrypt_sign_command="pgpewrap gpg --passphrase-fd 0 --batch --quiet --no-verbose --textmode --output - --encrypt --sign %?a?-u %a? --armor --always-trust --encrypt-to 0xC1C2C3C4 -- -r %r -- %f"

set pgp_import_command="gpg --no-verbose --import -v %f"

set pgp_export_command="gpg --no-verbose --export --armor %r"

set pgp_verify_key_command="gpg --no-verbose --batch --fingerprint --check-sigs %r"

set pgp_list_pubring_command="gpg --no-verbose --batch --with-colons --list-keys %r" 

set pgp_list_secring_command="gpg --no-verbose --batch --with-colons --list-secret-keys %r" 

set pgp_autosign=yes

set pgp_sign_as=0xC1C2C3C4

set pgp_replyencrypt=yes

set pgp_timeout=1800

set pgp_good_sign="^gpg: Good signature from"

If you prefer vim to nano:

set editor="vim -c 'set tw=70 et' '+/^$' "

set edit_headers=yes

A colour-scheme which happens to work with my set-up for guake:

color index green black plain

color normal green black

color status white black

color body green black plain

color header cyan black plain

color quoted blue black

color tree green black

Not sure what this does (something to do with headers) but it's there in my file:

ignore "Authentication-Results:"

ignore "DomainKey-Signature:"

ignore "DKIM-Signature"

hdr_order Date From To Cc

EDIT:

If you want to add a fastmail account (in my case me@imap.cc), do this:
There's no free smtp service from fastmail, so I use the gmail smtp service

Create imapcc.account in ~/.mutt and fill it with

set from=me@imap.cc
set hostname="imap.cc"
unset folder
set folder="imaps://me@imap.cc@messagingengine.com"
set postponed="=Drafts"
set record="=Sent"
set smtp_url="smtps://verahill@gmail.com@smtp.gmail.com"
set spoolfile="imaps://messagingengine.com/INBOX"
set from='Me at gmail <verahill@gmail.com>'
set signature="~/.mutt/signature.private"

and edit ~/.mutt/muttrc to add the following lines:

macro index <f5> '<sync-mailbox><enter-command>source ~/.mutt/imapcc.account<enter><change-folder>!<enter>'

folder-hook 'me@imap.cc' 'source ~/.mutt/imapcc.account'
account-hook imaps://me@imap.cc 'set imap_user=me@imap.cc imap_pass=ashortpassword smtp_pass=correhorsebatterystaple'

22. gnome-shell/GNOME3 -- acceptance

So after the turmoil of being thrown into a new desktop metaphor, I've finally reached a stage where I'd feel less at home in Gnome 2.3 than 3.0. Truth be told, the new gnome is both pretty and quite responsive. Key to making Gnome 3 usable is, however, that enough shell extensions are installed that it works similar to the old gnome. The application centric desktop may work for casual users (email/browser), but not for traditional linux/unix applications where different parts of a work flow is handled by different applications (e.g. latex -- scripting/composition in one application, compilation by another, inspection in a third; or gnuplot -- data preparation, gnuplot scripting, visualisation of output file).

But once all the shell extensions are installed, it's back to business as usual.

Even Linus seems to be coming around to Gnome 3 after mumbling about defecting to xfce4: https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts

So far I've only had one unresolved problem - an 'old' desktop with a radeon 5400 hd card won't run gnome-shell on debian testing. No acceleration. Oh well. At least all my other computers are reasonably happy so far.