Getting Gmail working in 2023

cheque_some

Backstory: I had been gratefully using the basic HTML Gmail on the Pre's web browser for many years. It sort of dovetailed in with one of the things that kept me using the Pre -- it got the job done, but it was painful and slow enough to use that it wasn't addictive. last month, shortly after joking that Google must have forgotten about the basic HTML mobile version, I was forced off it to a slightly more modern version. This version had some improvements (HTML emails rendered! Autocomplete suggestions for email addresses!) and some stuff that was worse(HTML emails sometimes got cut off! I can only ever view the most recent ten items in my Inbox).

Regardless, today Gmail stopped loading (or more accurately, rendering) altogether in the web browser, which has made me decide to just see if I can get it working in the native email client.

I'll be treating this as kind of a liveblog which will hopefully be useful as a future reference. First thing I'm going to try is what's outlined in this archived post from someone trying this three years ago: https://stacks.webosarchive.org/forums/Zero%20to%20Google%20in%202020%20-%20step%20by%20step%20-%20webOS%20Nation%20Forums.html

cheque_some

OK first roadblock, I can't find the patch mentioned to get Oauth2 working, google_oauth2_224_1-14.zip. Anyone have a copy?

cheque_some

OK, on reading that again, it looks like the Oauth2 stuff doesn't work for the email client anyway.

cheque_some

According to Google, basic HTML view is still supported until January 2024, and you can force it to be used by going to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/x/?fpu=1

this seems to have worked for me for now and buys me a little time to get this working.

preemptive

I have no idea if this is still relevant:

https://pivotce.com/2015/07/25/guide-getting-around-the-yellow-gmail-triangle-of-death/

cheque_some

Updates:

Basic HTML Gmail page now says February for the drop dead date
Trying setting up a dummy/throwaway Gmail account on my Pre so I don't accidentally lock myself out of my email in the process 😆

Steps I did yesterday:

Since Gmail will only let you log in with third party clients with an application password, you have to generate one. (It's basically a super-long password generated by Google.) But in order to do that, you have to set up 2FA on your account. (Now that I think about it, this requirement doesn't make sense to me, since presumably you can't use the 2FA in conjunction with the app password. but maybe it will become clear later.)
Setting up 2FA, it gives you the options of SMS/phone call authentication, some kind of push notification app (I don't think this is going to work on the Pre!) or a hardware token (I also don't think that's going to work, but I guess you could use one it on your PC to satisfy the 2FA requirement and still use the app password for Pre email). I went with the SMS notification option.
After setting up that 2FA, you can go back and add an additional form of 2FA (MFA!), which now gives you more options. I decided to try the Authenticator option, since I had an app called GAuth on my Pre that I must have gotten off Preware.
When you add Authenticator, it wants you to scan a QR code, but if you click that you can't scan it, it will give you a code to type into the app. Put your full gmail address as the account name and enter the code into the Gauth app's Add Account dialog. The Gmail page will then ask for the code that the app spits out. I entered what was shown in Gauth on the Pre and Gmail accepted it -- amazing! I kind of assumed that the app would no longer be up-to-date with Google's requirements. The nice thing here is you can still use your Pre as a second factor even when you don't have reception to receive a call or text due to the 2G /3G shutdown! 😁😆😢 Gmail did say to make sure that the "time-based" option was selected in the app, but I didn't see one in Gauth.
If you don't want to be SIM swapped out of your 2FA, you can now make the authenticator app your default second factor and even remove the SMS option if you want (hopefully this doesn't come back to bite me). You can also add another factor of backup codes that you print out or store securely, you know in case you don't want your ability to log in to your email totally dependent on your decade-old Pre working 😄
Now you can generate an application password all the way at the bottom of Gmail's security page.
Now on the Email app on the Pre I tried to add a new Goole account, which just threw an error. Then I tried just the generic Other account, which worked a little better -- I entered my full gmail address and the app password I just generated. This time it threw an error about the server's certificate being expired. No doubt due to the old root certificates on my advice. I asked in the WebOS Discord and was pointed to these files (both will need to be installed):
https://webosarchive.org/activation/org.webosinternals.openssl-updater_0.9.8-6_armv7.ipk
https://webosarchive.org/activation/com.palm_.rootcertsupdate_1.0-2_all.ipk
(Thanks, David!)

I haven't gotten around to doing that yet, it will be the next thing I try. If I get this working I'll try to write a less rambling guide in a later post, I'm just documenting as I go so I don't forget what I did.

cheque_some

OK, trying to install those ipk's off the webosarchive.org server throws a TLS error, which I guess is kind of expected 😆 🤦‍♂️

You could probably sideload them with WOSQI, but I didn't feel like getting that set up on a new machine, so I just downloaded them on my PC and copied them over to the Pre's internal storage. Installing them off the internal storage partition was pretty easy with Preware. I installed the openssl-updater first, then rootcertupdate one. Be aware that the openssl-updater will reboot your Pre as part of the installation with no warning.

Now, I went back into the Email app, clicked add account, "Email account", and entered the full gmail address for username and the 16 character app password generated by Gmail. That spun for a while then dumped me to an advanced settings page.

Before setting them up, I enabled IMAP support from Gmail -> Settings -> All Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP. The Google Support area says this option is going away and will turned on by default, but I guess not yet.

I used the following settings, which for some reason I could find nowhere on the Google Support area, I had to find them on third-party sites and play around with what worked on the Pre.

Incoming mail server

imap.gmail.com
Username: full gmail address (user@gmail.com)
Password: 16 character Gmail app password (was pre-filled from previous screen)
Encryption: SSL
Port #: 993

Outgoing mail server

smtp.gmail.com
Use Authentication: On
Username: Full email address
Password: 16 character app password, should be pre-filled from previous screen
Encryption: TLS
Port #: 587

And you now can send and receive emails! Way to go! 😃

cheque_some

And if you're wondering, turning off 2FA seems to invalidate any app passwords you already had created.

codepoet80

Nice work! I'll add this link to the Docs (and/or update them).

alanmorford

Well, does it still work for you?