How to Install RainLoop Webmail on FreeBSD 12

RainLoop is a simple, modern and fast web-based email client. RainLoop source code is hosted on Github. This guide will show you how to install RainLoop on a fresh FreeBSD 12 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• Web server: Apache, Nginx, lighttpd or other with PHP support. We use Nginx.
• PHP version 5.4 and above
• PHP extensions: cURL, iconv, json, libxml, dom, openssl, DateTime, PCRE, SPL
• Optional: PDO (MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite) PHP extension (for contacts)

Before you begin

Check the FreeBSD version.

uname -ro
# FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE

Ensure that your FreeBSD system is up to date.

freebsd-update fetch install
pkg update && pkg upgrade -y

Install the necessary packages.

pkg install -y sudo vim unzip curl wget bash socat git

Create a new user account with your preferred username. We will use johndoe.

adduser

# Username: johndoe
# Full name: John Doe
# Uid (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Login group [johndoe]: <Enter>
# Login group is johndoe. Invite johndoe into other groups? []: wheel
# Login class [default]: <Enter>
# Shell (sh csh tcsh nologin) [sh]: bash
# Home directory [/home/johndoe]: <Enter>
# Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Use password-based authentication? [yes]: <Enter>
# Use an empty password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Use a random password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Enter password: your_secure_password
# Enter password again: your_secure_password
# Lock out the account after creation? [no]: <Enter>
# OK? (yes/no): yes
# Add another user? (yes/no): no
# Goodbye!

Run the visudo command and uncomment the %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL line, to allow members of the wheel group to execute any command.

visudo

# Uncomment by removing hash (#) sign
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now, switch to your newly created user with su.

su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

sudo tzsetup

Install PHP and required PHP extensions

Install PHP, as well as the necessary PHP extensions.

sudo pkg install -y php72 php72-mbstring php72-tokenizer php72-pdo php72-pdo_mysql php72-openssl php72-hash php72-json php72-phar php72-filter php72-zlib php72-dom php72-xml php72-xmlwriter php72-xmlreader php72-pecl-imagick php72-curl php72-session php72-ctype php72-iconv php72-gd php72-simplexml php72-zip php72-filter php72-tokenizer php72-calendar php72-fileinfo php72-intl php72-phar php72-soap php72-xmlrpc php72-opcache php72-mysqli php72-bcmath php72-gmp

Check the version.

php --version

# PHP 7.2.19 (cli) (built: Jun 20 2019 01:25:01) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies

Soft-link php.ini-production to php.ini.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini

Enable and start PHP-FPM.

sudo sysrc php_fpm_enable=yes
sudo service php-fpm start

Install MariaDB and create a database

Install MariaDB.

sudo pkg install -y mariadb102-client mariadb102-server

Check the version.

mysql --version
# mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.2.24-MariaDB, for FreeBSD12.0 (amd64) using readline 5.1

Start and enable MariaDB.

sudo sysrc mysql_enable="yes" 
sudo service mysql-server start

Run the mysql_secure_installation script to improve the security of your MariaDB installation.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Log into MariaDB as the root user.

mysql -u root -p
# Enter password:

Create a new MariaDB database and user. Remember the credentials for this new user.

CREATE DATABASE dbname;
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Install and configure Nginx

Install Nginx.

sudo pkg install -y nginx

Check the version.

nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.14.2

Enable and start Nginx.

sudo sysrc nginx_enable=yes
sudo service nginx start

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/rainloop.conf and set up Nginx for Rainloop.

server {

  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  server_name example.com;

  root /usr/local/www/rainloop;

  index index.php;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
  }

  location ^~ /data {
     deny all;
  }

  location ~ /.php$ {
    try_files $uri =404;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+/.php)(.*)$;
    fastcgi_keep_conn on;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
  }

}

Save the file and exit.

Now we need to include rainloop.conf in the main nginx.conf file.

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add the following line to the http {} block.

include rainloop.conf;

Test the configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo service nginx reload

Install RainLoop

Create a document root directory.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/www/rainloop

Change the ownership of the /usr/local/www/rainloop directory to johndoe.

sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /usr/local/www/rainloop

Download the latest release of RainLoop and unzip it.

cd /usr/local/www/rainloop
wget http://www.rainloop.net/repository/webmail/rainloop-latest.zip
unzip rainloop-latest.zip -d /usr/local/www/rainloop
rm rainloop-latest.zip

Change the ownership of the /usr/local/www/rainloop directory to www.

sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/rainloop

Navigate to http://example.com/?admin in your favorite browser and login to configure RainLoop webmail. The default login name is admin and the password is 12345.