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mac57mac57

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 2, 2024
861
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Myrtle Beach, SC
Hi All, I am looking for a PPC Mac OS X 10.5.8 email client that will connect to GMail. I have now successfully done so via Aquafox 3.0, but it is painfully slow. I am looking for an email client that will connect instead. I have tried GNUMail and Sparrow Email to no good result. Is anyone aware of an email client that WILL connect to GMail from Leopard? Thanks!
 
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https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-g4-with-sorbet-leopard.2467827/post-34188896



I'm don't know if this is what you're looking for, but try these?
Claws-mail will work, there is a guide for setting it up with Gmail floating around on the internet. You will need a modern device to help with the setup, but after that it will be fine. Sylpheed is getting long in the tooth (last updated 2018) and I suspect it doesn't work with Gmail's current requirements. I have no experience with nmail, as it doesn't build on Tiger.
 
Thanks @barracuda156 and @Doq.

I was HOPING for a native Leopard app that would do the trick, but I have yet to find one. My last hope is TenFourBird 39.x, the last version(s) to run natively on Leopard.

I do plan to install PPCPorts, providing access to Sylpheed and claws-mail, but that is not a small job, so I am looking for other, short term solutions until I have time for that.

I tried Aquafox 3.0 again, hoping to play with the user agent strong and fool Gmail into accepting it, but I didn't have to! It just worked! Sloooow, but it worked. It's glacial speed makes it difficult to use, but at least it works now. Meantime, I will keep looking for a more effective solution.
 
I was HOPING for a native Leopard app that would do the trick,

Nobody writes Cocoa apps for 20-years old system, sadly.

I do plan to install PPCPorts, providing access to Sylpheed and claws-mail, but that is not a small job, so I am looking for other, short term solutions until I have time for that.

You should not really need PPCPorts just to build claws-mail or sylpheed. Standard MacPorts will probably do, and you can use a local overlay for w/e happens to be needed.
 
What exactly fails? Gmail is explicitly supported in it, I believe, so the issue can be raised to upstream, if it does not connect. We have to sort out the build on our side though.
xapian-core (a dependency of nmail) creates the following error log. If it isn't a completely trivial fix, it is not worth the effort. Tiger has claws-mail, sylpheed, and even mutt, so we are not lacking in email clients.
 

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xapian-core (a dependency of nmail) creates the following error log. If it isn't a completely trivial fix, it is not worth the effort. Tiger has claws-mail, sylpheed, and even mutt, so we are not lacking in email clients.

Did you try adding the header?
 
Did you try adding the header?
Thanks for the advice. I did go ahead and make a patch that allows xapian-core to build (see attached). I then tried to build nmail, which failed (log attached).
 

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Thanks for the advice. I did go ahead and make a patch that allows xapian-core to build (see attached). I then tried to build nmail, which failed (log attached).

> error: passing argument 2 of 'libiconv' from incompatible pointer type [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]

configure.cflags-append -Wno-error=incompatible-pointer-types

Make sure it picks libiconv port and not old libiconv from /usr/lib.
 
I tried the binary build (from @Matias_ I think) of both Sylpheed and claws-mail, under Leopard. BOTH failed to connect to GMail. I tried the same user name and password manually on my Mac Studio and it logged right in; my credentials are fine, it is something in the app that is not working. It does support OAuth2.0, at least it says it does, so it should be able to connect, but it fails.

@barracuda156, do you believe that the PPCPorts versions of Sylpheed and/or claws-mail are more functional than the ones I have tried? I have to admit I have yet to install PPCPorts...

TenFourBird 38.x also fails, but this was expected. As far as I know, it does not support OAuth2.0.

It would seem that all that is left is to deploy a GMail proxy on my Mac Studio and point my G5s at that. I tried that yesterday, but the first (and only one so far) one I tried would not run.
 
Have you tried using an app password instead of attempting OAuth2? This is probably required for any mail client on PPC at this point, regardless of security standards support.

 
Have you tried using an app password instead of attempting OAuth2?

Indeed I did! It failed.

You have to turn on two factor authentication in order for the App Password area to show up. At least in my case, this is not the usual "send a text to your phone with a code". Instead, it was "open the Google app on your phone and input the code you will find there".

This failed; no matter how many times I tried, Google on my computer would not accept the codes that the Google app on my phone provided. This was a total dead end for me. Thankfully, I was still signed in to Google on my phone and was able to turn off two factor authentication, or else I would have locked myself out of my Google account!
 
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I tried the binary build (from @Matias_ I think) of both Sylpheed and claws-mail, under Leopard. BOTH failed to connect to GMail. I tried the same user name and password manually on my Mac Studio and it logged right in; my credentials are fine, it is something in the app that is not working. It does support OAuth2.0, at least it says it does, so it should be able to connect, but it fails.

I do not guarantee either works with gmail since I did not try (I use claws-mail with a different mail), but settings are not too straight-forward, IMO, so make sure the failure is not due to incorrect setting up.

@barracuda156, do you believe that the PPCPorts versions of Sylpheed and/or claws-mail are more functional than the ones I have tried? I have to admit I have yet to install PPCPorts...

Yes for sylpheed (at least if default builds are compared), unsure/perhaps no for claws-mail. You could try using my ports without installing PPCPorts or borrowing any other stuff. I believe, they should build, provided MacPorts versions did.
 
Thanks @barracuda156, but I actually DO want to install PPCPorts, so I will go that way. The machine in question, my G5 Air Quad, has neither MacPorts nor PPCPorts on it, so it is ready for one or the other, and your PPCPorts seems more directly related to those of us driving PPC Macs.
 
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