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Accessing Outlook on GNU/Linux Systems

Guide written by Kieran Gordon.

(Tested on Fedora Linux 36.)

Due to the proprietary nature of Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook, and the university requiring Two-Factor Authentication (and restricting the creation of App Passwords), some additional steps are required to access the email system on GNU/Linux systems. There are several different email clients for GNU/Linux but for this example we'll be using GNOME/Evolution.

Important! This guide may not work for other email clients. Refer to the documentation for your email client for more information.

To start, install Evolution using your distributions' package manager. Examples are shown below.

For Ubuntu, Debian and other Debian based distributions:


            sudo apt update
            sudo apt install evolution
            sudo apt install evolution-ews

For Fedora/RHEL/CentOS based distributions:


            sudo dnf update
            sudo dnf install evolution
            sudo dnf install evolution-ews

For Arch Linux (and Arch-based distributions):


            sudo pacman -Syu
            sudo pacman -S evolution
            sudo pacman -S evolution-ews

For Gentoo Linux (and Gentoo-based distributions):


            sudo emerge evolution
            sudo emerge evolution-ews

Alternatively, you can install a Flatpak version of Evolution. A guide on how to install Flatpak is available here.

The Flatpak build of Evolution ships with evolution-ews built in.


            flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Evolution

Once installed, open Evolution and press File → New → Mail Account. You will then be prompted to follow a wizard.

Next, enter your Heriot-Watt Email Address, unselect "Look up mail server details based on the entered email address" and click Next.

Enter the following for each of the following fields:

Server Type: Exchange Web Services
Username: Your Heriot-Watt Email Address
Host URL: https://outlook.office365.com
Authentication Type: OAuth2 (Office365)

Then click Fetch URL. You will be prompted for your password, and if successful, the fields at the bottom filled in with the correct values.

Finally, click Next, and alter any settings you wish. Click Next again, and then finally you can then click Finish.

If everything went according to plan, you should be able to access your email account from Evolution!

Step-by-Step with Images

Step 1

Step 2

Note that for this step, the following results are expected after clicking Fetch URL and entering your password.

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5