Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Need some help getting Zimbra Desktop set up and working?
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wrightg
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2016 8:50 pm

Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Post by wrightg »

I have been trying for three weeks now to get Zimbra Desktop installed onto either a Linux Mint 18.3 or Ubuntu 16.04LTS system with absolutely no success whatsoever.

It appears that the install scripts provided with the download DO NOT WORK. The problems from what I can see are either permission problems and/or errors in the scripts. The actual initial install script "install.pl" that loads the software onto the system seem to work without error, but after that, trying to get a user installed is impossible.

I have tried this on both of the above named systems with exactly the same failures.

Once the software has been unpacked and the install.pl script run as root has finished, I want to set up a user to access the program. The user has no elevated privileges. They run the /opt/zimbra/zdesktop/linux/user-install.pl script but it fails because it cannot write to the installation directory. The user-install.pl script does a lot of things, including copying files from the installation directory to each user's personal Zimbra directories. That is with the exception of the zdrun.pl file. The user-install.pl script tries to MODIFY the zdrun.pl file and then write it back to the /opt/zimbra/zdestop/linux directory and of course fails because that directory is owned by the installation user and/or root. However if you try to run the user-install.pl script under the same account used to install the software or root then it appears to work. But the zdrun.pl file is now permanently changed to have the directories of the install user hard coded into it. So even if you got some other user to install the program correctly, it would still fail because of the hard coded links to the install user's personal files.

I'm not sure if the zdrun.pl file should be unique for each user, but if it should be then it should be copied into each users directory tree somewhere. I have tried doing this but was never successful as I still cannot figure out exactly how the program should run.

It would be really nice if somebody could get back to me telling me what I'm doing wrong to get this program installed and running for each of my users. I only have three users, but each of them use one of three computers each day and not necessarily the same computer each day, so they all have accounts on each of three computers. And none of them run with elevated privileges.

Can anybody please help me. I'm begging now for someone with knowledge of this product to step up and tell me where my errors are.

Thank you.

Greg ....
lytledd
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Re: Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Post by lytledd »

It would be really nice if somebody could get back to me telling me what I'm doing wrong to get this program installed and running for each of my users. I only have three users, but each of them use one of three computers each day and not necessarily the same computer each day, so they all have accounts on each of three computers. And none of them run with elevated privileges.

Can anybody please help me. I'm begging now for someone with knowledge of this product to step up and tell me where my errors are.
Greg,

The installer should be run as the user. The locations for the data and mail store should be in the user's home directory.

I've got ZD installed on my Linux Mint 18.2 (Cinnamon) desktop just fine.

I installed the application into my home/Applications folder and had the datastore going to my home/.zdesktop folder

Things just work.

Doug
wrightg
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Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2016 8:50 pm

Re: Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Post by wrightg »

Doug, thanks for responding. I was beginning to wonder if anybody read these posts.

As I said in my original post, I have been trying to get Zimbra Desktop installed on a Linus Mint Mate 18.3 system for quite some time. At present my Linux system(s) are installed in a VirturalBox virtual machine. When I install Linux and it asks for the name of the account under which to install the system, I use my administrative account name and password. After the installation is complete, I use the update procedures to update the system to the most recent updates, then I create three user accounts; all of which are considered 'normal' users without any administrative privileges. Finally, using the administrative account, I download the latest Zimbra Desktop .tgz file (7.3.1GA) to my Downloads folder, unpack it, cd into the unpacked folder and finally run the install procedure by executing the 'sudo ./install.pl' command. I agree to the license, agree to the default location for Zimbra (/opt/zimbra/zdesktop) and say 'no' when asked if I want to install 'data files for user'. Finally I log off the administrative account and log into a standard user account and try and execute the /opt/zimbra/zdesktop/linux/user-install.pl script. This script will eventually fail when it tries to modify the /opt/zimbra/zdesktop/linux/zdrun.pl script as a standard user has no write access to that directory.

Using the same procedures as above, but instead using the administrative account instead of a standard user account does seem to work. But that is because the administrative account has write access to the zdrun.pl script in the /opt/zimbra/zdesktop/linux directory.

So how exactly do you get this to work. I have tried the exact same procedures on both Linux Mint Mate, Linux Mint Cinnamon and Ubuntu systems with exactly the same results.

After reading your reply about putting the files in the 'Application' folder I stopped to think about what that meant. If during the initial installation of Zimbra Destop, instead of using the /opt/zimbra/zdesktop as the install folder and using a users /application folder (which must be created), then that would mean that each user must run the initial install.pl script. At least that is how I see it.

Can you please tell me exactly how you installed your system and how it differs from my installation procedure and also differs from the installation documentation outlined in this document: https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Installing ... top_64bits.

Any further help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I am not a Linux guru by any stretch of the imagination, but prior to my retirement in 2005, I administered a large number of Digital Ultrix, IBM AIX and SVR4 systems. So I do have extensive unix knowledge, but it is dated. I am trying to get this to work so that I can replace my families Windows computers with Linux machines to be able to cut down on the snooping by Microsoft.

Thanks.

Greg ...
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Re: Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Post by lytledd »

Can you please tell me exactly how you installed your system and how it differs from my installation procedure and also differs from the installation documentation outlined in this document: https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Installing ... top_64bits.

I'm logged in as doug, that profile is a standard user. I extracted the tar.gz file into a directory called Extracts. I have a folder in my home that I've created for Applications.

Code: Select all

ll
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 10 doug doug  270 Jun 28 07:28 app
-rwxrwxr-x  1 doug doug 6057 Dec 26  2016 install.pl
drwxrwxr-x  3 doug doug   18 Jun 28 07:28 jetty

Code: Select all

 ./install.pl 


Welcome to Zimbra Desktop setup wizard. This will install Zimbra Desktop on your computer.
------------------------------
Press enter to continue: 


PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SOFTWARE.  SYNACOR INC. WILL ONLY LICENSE THIS SOFTWARE TO YOU IF YOU FIRST ACCEPT THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. BY DOWNLOADING OR INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE, OR USING THE PRODUCT, YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, THEN DO NOT DOWNLOAD, INSTALL OR USE THE PRODUCT.
License Terms for this Zimbra Desktop Software: http://www.zimbra.com/license/zimbra_public_eula.html

------------------------------
(A)ccept or (D)ecline [A]: 


------------------------------
Choose the folder where you would like to install Zimbra Desktop's application files [/opt/zimbra/zdesktop]: /home/doug/Applications/zdesktop


Are you sure you would like to install Zimbra Desktop under folder /home/doug/Applications/zdesktop ? NOTE: All files under this directory will be deleted.
------------------------------
(Y)es or (N)o [Y]: y


Installing application files...done

You have finished installing application files.

Would you like to continue to install data files for user: doug ?
------------------------------
(Y)es or (N)o [Y]: 


------------------------------
Choose the folder where you would like to install Zimbra Desktop's user data files, full path please [/home/doug/zdesktop]: /home/doug/.zdesktop


Are you sure you would like to install Zimbra Desktop's user data under folder [/home/doug/.zdesktop] ? NOTE: All non-ZD data under this directory will be deleted.
------------------------------
(Y)es or (N)o [Y]: 


------------------------------
Choose the folder where you would like to create desktop icon [/home/doug/Desktop]: 



Installing user data files...done
Initializing user data...done
Creating desktop icon...done
Zimbra Desktop has been installed successfully for user doug.

You can start Zimbra Desktop by double-clicking the desktop icon or by running the following command:
"/home/doug/Applications/zdesktop/linux/zdrun.pl"

Press "Enter" to launch Zimbra Desktop; Press "Ctrl-c" to exit: 
The icon on my desktop launches Zimbra Desktop

Doug
wrightg
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Re: Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Post by wrightg »

Doug, thank you for the detailed response. I have just finished installing ZD using your procedures and they work as you said.

It took me a little bit to wrap my brain around doing a full install of the software for each user. This is not something one would normally do on a multi-user system. You would think that you install the software once using an administrative account and then add each user as needed. This is what I was trying to do and this is what the install instructions found on the Zimbra Desktop download page indicated should be done.

Anyway, I've gotten a machine with two users running. So far I can switch between the two users without seeing any conflicts, locks or other ill effects of each user running their own instance of the software.

Again I appreciate all your help. I'm now one step closer to ridding myself of my Windows systems.

Not sure if any of the developers or support people from Synacor monitor this site, but I think they should. I still believe that the install procedures for Zimbra Desktop are seriously flawed and your installation procedures are a work around (a good work around, I might add).

Greg ...
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Re: Seriously Flawed Linux Installation of Zimbra Desktop

Post by lytledd »

Not sure if any of the developers or support people from Synacor monitor this site, but I think they should. I still believe that the install procedures for Zimbra Desktop are seriously flawed and your installation procedures are a work around (a good work around, I might add).
I believe you probably can.

You'd need to modify the path for each user to include the /opt/zimbra/zdesktop, easily done in the .bashrc. You'd probably also want to create a group, maybe zdesktop that all your users would be in and give group permissions to the zdesktop folder, so they had permissions to the executable.

I've never tried this, but may do so this weekend.

Doug
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