Gray Duck Mail is a free email service that emphasizes privacy and security. It is an excellent alternative to other email providers, and you can install it on your FreeBSD system in just a few steps.
Follow the steps below to install Gray Duck Mail on your FreeBSD system:
Make sure your FreeBSD system is up-to-date before you start installing Gray Duck Mail. To update your system, run the following command:
sudo pkg update && sudo pkg upgrade
You need to install the following dependencies before you can install Gray Duck Mail:
To install these dependencies, run the following command:
sudo pkg install -y apache24 mysql57-server php74 php74-mysqli php74-filter php74-curl php74-mbstring php74-gd php74-dom php74-xmlwriter php74-session php74-hash php74-iconv
To download the Gray Duck Mail, navigate to the directory where you want to download the package and run the following command:
wget -O grayduck.zip https://grayduckmail.com/download
Once the Gray Duck Mail package has finished downloading, unzip it with the following command:
unzip grayduck.zip
To move Gray Duck Mail to Apache's Document Root, run the following command:
sudo mv grayduck /usr/local/www/apache24/data
You need to create a MySQL database for Gray Duck Mail to function correctly. Run the following commands to create a new database:
sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE grayduckdb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON grayduckdb.* TO 'grayduckuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
Replace grayduckuser and password with your preferred username and password.
To configure Gray Duck Mail, rename the config-example.php file to config.php:
cd /usr/local/www/apache24/data/grayduck/includes
sudo mv config-example.php config.php
Open the config.php file with your preferred text editor and update the following values:
define('DB_NAME', 'grayduckdb');
define('DB_USER', 'grayduckuser');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password');
Replace grayduckdb, grayduckuser, and password with your database name, username, and password, respectively.
Grant write permissions to the uploader and log directories:
cd /usr/local/www/apache24/data/grayduck
sudo chown -R www:www uploader/ log/
sudo chmod -R 777 uploader/ log/
Start Apache and MySQL services:
sudo service apache24 start
sudo service mysql-server start
Open your web browser and go to:
http://localhost/grayduck/
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Gray Duck Mail on your FreeBSD system.
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
