How to Set Up Roundcube Webmail on Your Breeze

How to Set Up Roundcube Webmail on Your Breeze

Roundcube is a feature-rich, open-source webmail client that provides a modern browser-based interface for reading and sending email. Installing Roundcube on your Breeze instance gives your users a convenient way to access their mailboxes from anywhere without a desktop email client.

Prerequisites

• A Breeze server with a working mail server (Postfix + Dovecot recommended)
• Apache or Nginx web server with PHP 8.x installed
• MySQL or MariaDB for the Roundcube database
• A valid SSL certificate for secure access

Step 1: Install Dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php-cli php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-intl \
  php-zip php-gd php-curl php-imagick php-ldap composer unzip

Step 2: Download Roundcube

cd /var/www
sudo wget https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/releases/download/1.6.6/roundcubemail-1.6.6-complete.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf roundcubemail-1.6.6-complete.tar.gz
sudo mv roundcubemail-1.6.6 roundcube
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/roundcube
sudo chmod -R 750 /var/www/roundcube/temp /var/www/roundcube/logs

Step 3: Create the Database

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE roundcubemail CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'roundcube'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON roundcubemail.* TO 'roundcube'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Import the initial schema:

mysql -u roundcube -p roundcubemail < /var/www/roundcube/SQL/mysql.initial.sql

Step 4: Configure Roundcube

Copy the sample config and edit it:

cd /var/www/roundcube/config
cp config.inc.php.sample config.inc.php
nano config.inc.php

Set the key configuration values:

$config['db_dsnw'] = 'mysql://roundcube:StrongPassword123@localhost/roundcubemail';
$config['imap_host'] = 'ssl://localhost:993';
$config['smtp_host'] = 'tls://localhost:587';
$config['smtp_user'] = '%u';
$config['smtp_pass'] = '%p';
$config['support_url'] = '';
$config['product_name'] = 'Breeze Webmail';
$config['des_key'] = 'your-24-char-random-key!!';
$config['plugins'] = ['archive', 'zipdownload', 'managesieve'];
$config['language'] = 'en_US';
$config['skin'] = 'elastic';

Step 5: Configure the Web Server

Create an Nginx server block for Roundcube:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name mail.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/roundcube;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mail.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mail.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
    location ~ /\. { deny all; }
    location ~ ^/(config|temp|logs)/ { deny all; }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/roundcube.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 6: Run the Installer

Navigate to https://mail.yourdomain.com/installer/ in your browser to verify the installation. Once confirmed, remove the installer directory:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/roundcube/installer

Security Hardening

• Remove the installer — always delete it after setup
• Restrict config permissions — chmod 640 config/config.inc.php
• Enable rate limiting — set $config['login_rate_limit'] to prevent brute force attempts
• Use fail2ban — monitor /var/www/roundcube/logs/errors.log for failed logins
• Keep updated — regularly apply Roundcube security patches