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Evolution Mail (Linux Users)

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 Okta MFA. Ubuntu 18.04 and Fedora 28 are known to be working, although any Linux distribution with evolution-ews v3.27.91 or above in it's package repository should theoretically work.

To install and configure Evolution on RHEL or Fedora Core 28, follow these steps:

Step1: 

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

yum 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.

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 ID: 0347d89a-0174-4dd3-adeb-3339c89c35f5
  • Application ID: 01768785-5d6a-43ec-928d-796463e0d9f6    (This # may be replaced with campus wide Application ID later.)

Your screen should resemble the following:

Click Finish to proceed.

Step 6:

Click Apply to add the account to Evolution.

Step 7:

If you do not receive a pop-up window with Okta 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 pop-up window with Okta logo and a login prompt.  Enter your credentials and complete Okta authentication to finish setting up the account.

Note: You do not need to click the "Do not challenge me on this device again" checkbox.  Evolution will remember your login and you will not be prompted to re-authenticate until the Oauth token expires.  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.

Note: The above instructions are modified from https://support.uidaho.edu/TDClient/KB/ArticleDet?ID=1080.