Evolution doesn't read winmail.dat (MS TNEF)

[Winnewbie]

Binary package hint: evolution

Hi

I've converted to Ubuntu from Windows but that doesn't mean everyone else has done so. Contrary to some forum discussion, it would be ill advised to tell them all to turn off tnef or not write emails in Word. Therefore there is a bug in Evolution, it cannot read winmail.dat file attachments. I can see a plug in for it but it doesn't seem to be working. I should think this is a fundamental functionality into Evolution, in order to smooth out transition from Outlook for instance. If not, can anyone advise me work arounds in order to read over 40 winmail.dat files received this week. Thanks

Mike

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/evolution
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: evolution 2.24.1-0ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evolution
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-7-generic i686

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

thanks for the report, there's an upstream similar bug http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=549592 ; according to that you need to have libytnef installed in order to have the plugin working, is that package installed? does it works fine after doing the installation? thanks.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

for Evolution to be able to read the Microsoft proprietary packaging of attachments, you must:

1. install the following packages:

- libytnef0
- evolution-plugins-experimental

(on a terminal, 'sudo apt-get install libytnef0 evolution-plugins-experimental' will do it.)

2. Quit Evolution;

3. Start Evolution again;

4. go to Edit/Plugins, and scroll down to "TNEF Attachment decoder"; enable it.

5. Close the Plugin Manager.

You may have to bounce Evolution again, but this is it.

I am closing this bug. Please do not hesitate in re-opening it if you feel we did not address your issue.

Of course, life would be much more simpler for all if Microsoft were to default to Internet-compatible attachments...

[Winnewbie (mike-reardon)]

Hi

I hate to burst your bubble, but I went to Synaptic and found packages already enabled. Plugins was enabled.

You can close the bug, but I remain and so does the bug. How do we go from here. Is there a report that I should be printing up for you?

Mike

[Jim Rorie (jfrorie)]

I'm reopening this bug as it was closed without verification. I'm seeing the same thing on 8.10 with experimental plugins installed as well as libytnef0.

Winmail.dat is being partially decoded. Before adding the plugin, I wasn't getting any attachments through. After the plugin, I was able to decode several jpg's in one email. Other attachments in different emails are still showing up as winmail.dat

[Jim Rorie (jfrorie)]

More info. I processed one of the files using ytnef. This is the output:

jfrorie@zd8000:~/mail$ ytnef -v . winmail.dat
Attempting to parse ....
ERROR: Error reading signature
Attempting to parse winmail.dat...
ERROR: Signature does not match. Not TNEF.

Looks MS changed something. This file was created using Outlook Web Access OWA.

Some background from the ynet sourceforge site.

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1883309&group_id=57057&atid=482789.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue is similar to http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=563579

[Thomas Zahreddin (thomas-zahreddin)]

i still have this bug with jaunty 9.04; evolution 2.26.1, followed the instructions above, but can't read winmail.dat attachments.

please inform me if you need more details.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

no more details are needed, if you look at the report it says "Triaged" on the status, which means that all the info required is here, we only need someone to fix it now. patches are welcome btw, thanks.

[iv76erson03 (caleb-calebhill)]

I followed the instructions in post #3 and I was finally able to read the attachments. Thanks! Now to get my exchange contacts working and I'll be 100%.

[Jörg Frings-Fürst (jff-de)]

bug from 2008. Version not more supported.
change status to invalid.