Linux Email Clients and MFA

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This tutorial applies to the following operating system(s):

Linux

Overview:

You can access your University of Idaho email from a Linux computer through two supported methods.

Other native mail clients for Linux, including Thunderbird and Seamonkey, are not supported at this time.

 

Outlook Web App

To access your email through OWA, please visit https://mail.uidaho.edu/ in a current version of Firefox or Chrome. Other Linux web browsers may work but have not been tested.

If you need access when not connected to the Internet, you can enable a feature called Offline Mode. Opening Outlook Web App with Offline mode enabled allows you to view your calendar, contacts, and the most recent 150 messages in synced folders. Offline mode can be turned on in OWA at Settings -> Offline Settings -> check the "Turn on offline access" box. Your Inbox and Drafts folders are automatically synced to your browser cache and you can sync up to 5 additional folders.

Not all features are available in Offline mode. For more information please visit https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Using-Outlook-Web-App-offline-3214839C-0604-4162-8A97-6856B4C27B36.

 

Evolution Mail client

The Evolution Mail client supports Office 365 through the evolution-ews plugin, starting in evolution-ews v3.27.91 and above. The plugin provides Exchange Web Services and modern authentication support, required to access Office 365 mail with Duo MFA. Ubuntu 18.04 and Fedora 28 have been tested, although any Linux distribution with evolution-ews v3.27.91 or above in it's package repository should theoretically work.

As of October 2018, Ubuntu 18.04 has a compatible evolution-ews package in it's repository, while Ubuntu 16.04 and earlier do not have supported versions available. You may need to upgrade your Ubuntu distribution to 18.04 to use Evolution.

To install and configure Evolution on Ubuntu 18.04, follow these steps:

 

Step 1:

Install the Evolution packages if not already installed. Open a terminal and execute the following commands as the root user:

apt-get update
apt-get install evolution evolution-ews

 

Step 2:

Launch Evolution. If this is the first run you will be presented with the add account wizard. If Evolution was already configured, go to File -> New -> Email Account to open the wizard.

 

Step 3:

Click Next on the initial Welcome screen. When prompted to restore from backup, ensure "Restore from a backup..." is unchecked and click Next.

 

Step 4:

Enter your name and email address in the Required Information fields, uncheck "Look up mail server details based on the entered email address", and click Next.

Evolution account wizard Identity step

 

Step 5:

In the Receiving Email step, set the Server Type drop down menu to "Exchange Web Services", set the Username field to your email address, and change the Host URL field to "https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx". On the Authentication drop down menu select "OAuth2 (Office365)". If "OAuth2 (Office365)" is not listed as an option, click "Check for Supported Types" first. Check the box "Override Office365 OAuth2 settings" and enter the following values for Tenant and Application ID:

Tenant - 7ebc6b63-5792-4a19-b20b-04b826048853

Application ID - da373c7f-701b-4575-8903-251b6898ee92

Your screen should resemble the following:

Evolution server configuration

Click Finish to proceed.

 

Step 6:

Click Apply to add the account to Evolution.

Evolution click Apply to add account

 

Step 7:

If you do not receive a pop-up window with the U of I logo and a login prompt, the Evolution process might be frozen. Open a terminal and enter the following command:

sudo pkill evolution

Then relaunch Evolution. If you receive an error stating another Evolution process is already running, reboot your computer and re-open Evolution when complete.

 

Step 8:

You should receive a popup window with the U of I logo and a login prompt. Enter your credentials and complete Duo authentication to finish setting up the account.

Office 365 login prompt

Office 365 Duo prompt

Note: you do not need to click the "Remember me for 14 days" checkbox. Evolution will remember your login and you will not be prompted to re-authenticate until the Oauth token expires, about 30 days. If you change your password at any time you will be required to reauthenticate.

 

Step 9:

Your account has been successfully added to Evolution mail.