How To Install Mailspring On Linux
Looking for a modern email client to run on your Linux PC? If so, consider trying out Mailspring. It’s a new kind of email client, with a lot to offer that many traditional email programs on Linux lack such as a modern design, email-read notifications, smart email search, themes and much, much more. To install Mailspring, select your operating system below and follow the instructions.
Ubuntu/Debian Instructions
Want to get the Mailspring client on your Ubuntu or Debian box? If so, you won’t be able to install it with “sudo apt-get”. Instead, you’ll need to download a Debian package file from the official website and install it manually. Grab the 64bit Debian file, and then open up a terminal window. Once downloaded, use the CD command to move terminal into ~/Downloads.
Note: Mailspring sadly does not have a 32-bit package available for download. If you really want to try out this email client on a 32-bit Linux operating system, consider contacting the developers, or delving into the source code yourself on Github.
cd ~/Downloads
Inside of the downloads folder, use the DPKG tool to tell the system to install the Mailspring DEB file.
sudo dpkg -i mailspring-*-amd64.deb
Installing any Debian package from the internet is inherently not as good as downloading directly from an official package repository. The reason for this is the fact that sometimes when using DPKG to install a package, dependencies are not installed. It doesn’t happen every time, but to make sure that your program works after installing a package via the terminal, run the fix command.
sudo apt install -f
Press “Y” to accept any additional programs and files that the terminal needs to download. When it completes, open up Mailspring and set it up.
Arch Linux Instructions
Getting Mailspring on Arch starts off by cloning the latest AUR package from the Arch AUR Git server in a terminal.
Note: be sure that git is installed on Arch by doing: sudo pacman -S git
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/mailspring.git
After cloning the latest Arch Linux PKGBUILD from the AUR via git, the building can begin. To start, use the CD command to enter the Mailspring folder.
cd mailspring
From here, Mailspring can be built and installed, provided all dependencies are resolved. Luckily, Pacman lets the user do all three things at once, by adding -si to the end of the makepkg command:
makepkg -si
Fedora Instructions
The latest version of the Mailspring email client is readily available for installation on Fedora (and other RPM-based Linux distributions) via a downloadable package from the website. To get the package, head over to the Mailspring download page, select “Linux” and click “Linux (64-bit .rpm)”. Then, open up a terminal window and use the CD command to move it to the ~/Downloads folder.
cd ~/Downloads
Install the Mailspring RPM to your Fedora Linux PC with the DNF install command:
sudo dnf install mailspring-*.x86_64.rpm -y
After installing the package, Mailspring is ready to use on Fedora.
OpenSUSE Instructions
It’s possible to get Mailspring on OpenSUSE thanks to the RPM file available on the official website. Download it, and open a terminal. Using CD, move to the ~/Downloads folder (where the RPM file is). Then, use the Zypper package tool to install Mailspring.
cd ~/Downloads sudo zypper install mailspring-*.x86_64.rpm
Snap Package Instructions
The people behind Mailspring don’t have time to package their program for each and every Linux operating system out there. That’s why they’ve placed the Mailspring email client on the Snap store so that anyone running the latest version of snapd can install Mailspring with ease. To install Mailspring via snap, first follow our guide to set up snap packages on your Linux distribution. Alternatively, look at your Linux distro’s wiki pages, and find if it has instructions for setting up snaps.
Then, install the latest version of Mailspring via snaps:
sudo snap install mailspring
Using Mailspring
When the Mailspring app opens, a wizard appears that shows off all the neat features that the program has to offer. Be sure to read over each one of the pages, so that you don’t get lost. After reading through everything, the app asks the user to create a new Mailspring ID. Do so, as this is how you’ll be logging in to the app, saving preferences across devices and etc.
After signing in with your new ID, you’ll need to choose an email provider. Select your email from the list. If your email account provider isn’t pictured, select IMAP/SMTP. The mail setup tool will use the internet to guess the right settings for you. If the settings aren’t correct, you should look up what IMAP/STMP settings your email provider tells you to use when configuring an email client.
On the next page, Mailspring will ask you to set your mail client up exactly how you like it. You’ll choose a theme, and pick from settings. Once everything is ready, you’ll have access to your email.
I followed the instructions above for an Arch install. The install worked fine, but invoking mailspring via either the icon or with the terminal results in a segmentation fault and core dump. Perhaps this is a known issue?