How to check your Hotmail or Windows Live Account from Ubuntu with Evolution

It's incredibly frustrating for those of us who use Microsoft's webmail applications under Linux.  To begin with, when Microsoft started their Live Mail application it only supported Internet Explorer, so no Linux.  Secondly, Hotmail and Live Mail do not allow users to connect to the mail server via POP or SMTP so to check your email you need to manually pull up a browser to see if you've received any mail.  In the following tutorial I explain how to download your Hotmail or Live Mail emails using Ubuntu 8.10, Evolution, and applications from the repositories.

We'll perform the following steps using the graphical user interface as much as possible. The following tutorial was written for Ubuntu 8.10 but should function (with slight modifications) on any supported version of Ubuntu and most current Linux distibutions. Update: I've updated the tutorial to reflect new changes to get this app working under Ubuntu.  I've also attached the Getlive manual that outlines all configuration options.

Install GetLive

GetLive is a Python script that will log in to your Hotmail or Live Mail account and download your emails.  In this tutorial we will save these emails in a mbox file that is readable in Evolution. While GetLive is in the Ubuntu repositories, the version there is outdated and no longer functions. What we will do is grab the updated package from the Debian website on top of installing the package from the Ubuntu repositories (this is so any dependencies issues are met). First, open up the terminal (Applications - Accessories - Terminal) and enter:

sudo aptitude install getlive

This will install the broken version of GetLive, but will also install any dependencies that aren't met in your installation. Next we download the updated package from Debian. The URL for the package we are after is - http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/getlive/getlive_0.58~cvs2008... (If this link is broken then visit - http://packages.debian.org/lenny/all/getlive/download and select another mirror). Simply download this new package and double-click it to install. Update: I've attached the new .deb file to this post.

Configure GetLive

Once GetLive is installed we need to configure it to download our emails.  to do this we open the GetLive configuration file and add our details.  Navigate to Places - Home Folder and hold ctrl + h to show the hidden files.  Open the file ".getliverc" or create it if it's not present.  To create the file right click in your home directory, select Create Document - Empty File and name it ".getliverc". Add the following lines to the file:

UserName = the first part of your email address (before the @ symbol)

Password = Your Password

Domain = hotmail.com (the second part of your email address - after the @ symbol)

FetchOnlyUnread = Yes

RetryLimit = 3

Processor = /bin/cat - >> FetchedMail

Folder = Inbox

MarkRead = Yes

mode=200810

The UserName, Password and Domain should be fairly self explanitory. FetchOnlyUnread can read either "Yes" or "no".  If you want to get all of your messages (perhaps for the first download) then enter "No". RetryLimit is the number of attempts to connect to the server should the previous attempt(s) fail. Processor is the application that processes the downloaded content.  You can add sendmail to forward the email via SMTP for example.  What we have in this file converts the messages to mbox format. Folder is the folder of your Hotmail or Live Mail account that messages are downloaded from.  You can leave this line out to download from all of your folders or separate options with a comma. MarkRead will mark downloaded messages as read on your Hotmail or Live Mail account. I'm not sure what 'mode=200810' actually means but it makes the app work properly with the new Hotmail and Live Mail changes.

A sample file for microsoft@hotmail.com would read:

UserName = microsoft

Password = SoMePaSsWoRd

Domain = hotmail.com

FetchOnlyUnread = Yes

RetryLimit = 3

Processor = /bin/cat - >> FetchedMail

Folder = Inbox

MarkRead = Yes

mode=200810

Download Messages

To download the emails we will create a script to execute GetLive and then schedule this script to execute every thirty minutes. In your Home directory create a file called "check_hotmail.sh".  Open this file and enter:

#!/bin/sh
# Check Hotmail Account with GetLive
getlive

Save this file and exit the text editor.  This simple bash script will execute the GetLive application.  We execute this in a script so that if we ever want or need to add any variables we can do so in a central location in a single file. Next, create a file in you home directory called "cron.txt".  Open this file and enter:

# Check Hotmail Account every Thirty Minutes

30 * * * * sh /home/your_user_name/check_hotmail.sh

Save this file and exit the text editor.  We create the cron.txt file so that we can manage our cronjobs (scheduled tasks) from a central location and in a single file. Open your terminal (Applications - Accessories - Terminal) and type "crontab cron.txt".  This loads the contents of the cron.txt file into your central crontab file. There is one final step and it requires opening up your Hotmail or Live Mail account in your browser. Select 'Options' on the upper right of the page and select 'off' under 'reading pane settings'. If you wait thirty minutes GetLive will automatically download your emails.  If you don't want to wait, however, simply type "getlive" in the terminal.

Configure Evolution

Getting Evolution to display the emails downloaded with GetLive is a very simple task. Open Evolution and select Edit - Preferences - Mail Accounts - Add Enter in your personal details where required.  When you get to the Receiving Email options select "local delivery" from the drop down box and for the Path option select "(Your Home Directory) FetchedMail".  Enter in your personal information in the following steps and save the configuration.  Evolution is now configured to check your Hotmail or Live Mail emails, as downloaded with GetLive, as often as you tell it to.