Thunderbird 5 in LMDE

[mfs]

Hi folks,

I just noticed that, while firefox is at a recent version (5.0) in the linuxmint LMDE repository, thunderbird is some versions behind (3.1.7 vs. 5.0). As the version from the ppa:mozilla-team/thunderbird-stable natty did not work for me, I would like to ask the LMDE repository maintainers kindly to add thunderbird in its recent version to the LMDE repository.

Maybe some of you support this plea?

mfs.

[craigevil]

Why not simply download it from Mozilla, extract, create a shortcut,and poof you have the newest version that autoupdates.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:5.0) Gecko/20110624 Thunderbird/5.0

The same goes for Firefox, Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0

BTW do not install Ubuntu packages on LMDE.

[mfs]

You are right. I could do that. But I'm not sure that every LMDE user would be able to. Additionaly, what about Debian's philsophy to have everything in its repository? At least the LMDE repository should contain the newest (and therefore safest) version of the Thunderbird 3.1 series (i.e. 3.1.11 instead of 3.1.7). Nevertheless, this would be inconsequent regarding the recentness of firefox in the repository.

mfs.

[Roken]

It's impossible to ensure that the repositories have the latest and greatest versions of all software all the time, and indeed on a Debian based repository it's unlikely, simply because:

i. There's a huge amount of software out there. No-one has the resources to keep track of it all the time.
ii. Debian goes through a testing phase which means that the latest version will rarely reach the stable, or even testing repositories (using experimental will get you closer, but then you WILL break your system).

Having said that, Firefox and Thunderbird are particularly easy to deal with. You download, extract anywhere (/home/usename/ is a good idea), then simply change the shortcuts to point to /home/username/forefox/firefox and /home/username/thunderbird/thunderbird. It really doesn't get much easier than that, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who has managed the first hurdle with Linux (installing the OS) can easily manage this, too.

The advantage of this approach is that it doesn't remove the repository version, so updates will still come through the normal way. When the repository catches up with what you want, you can re-point your shortcuts and delete the folders in /home.

[JeffShepherd]

Hi everyone,

I've just downloaded Thunderbird 5, unpacked it and set up the short cut on my desktop but the program is not launching. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jeff

[itsme4401]

I've just downloaded Thunderbird 5, unpacked it and set up the short cut on my desktop but the program is not launching. Any ideas?

You missed something between "unpacking & set up a shortcut": AFAIK after unpacking a tar you should run:

./configure
make
make install (as root)

before launching any program.
The unpacked tar might contain a README (or INSTALL) with further instructions, or try ./configure --help
I hope this helps to get you there.

[craigevil]

I've just downloaded Thunderbird 5, unpacked it and set up the short cut on my desktop but the program is not launching. Any ideas?

You missed something between "unpacking & set up a shortcut": AFAIK after unpacking a tar you should run:

./configure
make
make install (as root)

before launching any program.
The unpacked tar might contain a README (or INSTALL) with further instructions, or try ./configure --help
I hope this helps to get you there.

No no no. There is nothing to compile.

download, extract, create a shortcut, and if you want it on the menu copy the thunderbird.desktop file to /usr/share/applications.

I just copy and edit the Icedove.desktop file as well as renaming it.

This is what my thunderbird.desktop file looks like.

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Network;Email;News;GTK;
Comment[en_US]=Read/Write Mail/News with Thumderbird
Comment=Read/Write Mail/News with Thunderbird
Exec=/home/craig/Downloads/thunderbird/thunderbird %u
GenericName[en_US]=Mail Client
GenericName=Mail Client
Icon=/home/craig/Downloads/thunderbird/chrome/icons/default/default32.png
MimeType=message/rfc822;
Name[en_US]=Thunderbird Mail/News
Name=Thunderbird Mail/News
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=
X-MultipleArgs=false
 

[JeffShepherd]

Right,

I have deleted Thunderbird 5 and started again from scratch with downloading and unpacking it. When I click to launch it it starts to load up but only gets so far before it closes, could I be missing a library?

[JeffShepherd]

Well that was weird!! I downloaded thunderbird 5 again, unpacked it and moved it to /opt which is exactly what I was doing earlier and this time it worked.

[JeffShepherd]

Ok this is very weird now. Every time I opened thunderbird it would open twice so I uninstalled it then did a reinstall and now it wont run again.

[JeffShepherd]

All sorted now, haven't got a clue what was happening or how I got it sorted out but got there in the end.

[SimonTS]

Jeff,

Any ideas what changed? I have downloaded FF5 (thunderbird-5.0.tar.bz2), moved it to my home folder, extracted it there with Archive Manager, but I cannot get it to launch. I have changed the shortcut in my menu to point to the correct place, but it doesn't do anything - no error messages, nothing. Trying to launch it from the command-line gives exactly the same result - nothing at all happens.

Any help would be massively appreciated.

[JeffShepherd]

Hi Simon,

Try doing this.

From Package manager uninstall thunderbird.

Delete all folders you have that have the new thunderbird in it.

Unpack the new thunderbird again. I sent mine to /opt where the old thunderbird was installed, I don't know if that makes any difference or not.

[SimonTS]

Thanks Jeff, I'll try that later. It would be much easier if Mozilla kept a repository up to date for Thunderbird/IceDove like they do for Firefox/IceWeasel.

Edit:-

That didn't work either. The good news is that I have got it working. I added the repos from Mepis Testing, added them as a Pin-Priority of 700 to /etc/apt/preferences, then used 'apt-get install thunderbird thunderbird-gnome-support'. They just went straight into my distro. All I then had to do was set the menu icon to point to "/usr/lib/thunderbird-5.0/thunderbird.sh %u" and it went straight away. Now to setup my Google Calendar add-on!!

[mfs]

You download, extract anywhere (/home/usename/ is a good idea), then simply change the shortcuts to point to /home/username/forefox/firefox and /home/username/thunderbird/thunderbird. It really doesn't get much easier than that, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who has managed the first hurdle with Linux (installing the OS) can easily manage this, too.

Still sure about that?

[kmb42vt]

There seems to be a bit of misunderstanding as to how Mozilla programs are installed into LMDE so I hope to clear this up for everyone's benefit.

Note: The following tutorial is longer than the actually doing so don't be alarmed.

The first thing you have to understand is that Firefox and Thunderbird are already built by Mozilla so you don't have to. Next, in LMDE, Thunderbird and Firefox are located in the '/opt' directory and system shortcuts to both are already built-in to LMDE so this makes updating fairly easy even though it has to be done manually. The secret is to make sure you download the correct version of Thunderbird or Firefox for your LMDE install meaning either 32 bit or 64 bit. You can find these at this Mozilla FTP URL:

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/

In the case of Thunderbird (current version is 6.0) follow the Thunderbird related FTP links until you get to the download directory for version 6.0 (.../thunderbird/releases/6.0/) and there you can choose the Thunderbird (download) directory that matches your LMDE install:

TB 32 bit for LMDE 32 = 'linux-i686/' (directory)
TB 64 bit for LMDE 64 = 'linux-x86_64/' (directory)

Once you're in either one of the above directories it's just a matter of clicking on a Thunderbird version in your own language which will start the download. Download to a convenient location.

Now the next bit is rather simple but you need to read the whole thing through before attempting to accomplish the task. Also, make sure Thunderbird is not running.

First, open Nautilus and select "File system" from the left hand sidebar. Once done, right-click on the '/opt' directory and choose "Open as administrator". Enter your password in the pop-up dialog box and a "root" Nautilus (red background) should open up to the '/opt' directory contents. Find the 'thunderbird' directory and rename it 'thunderbird-old'.

Now, move your downloaded "thunderbird-6.0.tar.bz2" file into the '/opt' directory, right-click on it and select "Extract here" which will create a new 'thunderbird' directory (it must be named "thunderbird" or it will not work). Once done, delete the 'thunderbird-6.0.tar.bz2' file and that's it. If everything went correctly you should be able to simply click on the Thunderbird icon in the Mint menu and Thunderbird (6.0 in this case) should start up with all your settings intact. The only caveat, as with all updates to Thunderbird and Firefox, is that some of your extensions might mot be compatible with the new version of Thunderbird.

[Roken]

Just to answer the "Why" about why it doesn't work if you extract the latest version to anywhere other than /opt, it's because your system is still pointing to the version in /opt (e.g. if you just type "thunderbird" in a terminal you will get the "installed" version).

To make an alternative work without overwriting the default version:

Download and extract to wherever you want (e.g. /home)
Run it with sh /home/thunderbird/thunderbird

Note the fully qualified path to run it. This avoids the default version being automatically run. It doesn't matter if you cd into the installed directory, you still need to run it with the fully qualified path if you put it anywhere other than /opt. You also need the fully qualified path in any launcher or shortcut that you set up.

If you are happy to overwrite the default version (I have) then extract to /opt as described by kmb42vt. Just running thunderbird will launch the new version then. If you want to keep the default version and run the new version, remember to use the full path.

[gavinhc]

Additionaly, what about Debian's philsophy to have everything in its repository?

I keep my Firefox, well Iceweasel actually, install up-to-date using the Aurora channel through the http://mozilla.debian.net/ repositories. This repo previously only offered Iceweasel builds, but sometime in the last couple months, they also added Icedove builds, so you can keep both Firefox and Thunderbird more up-to-date than what is available through the standard Debian repos or the Mint repos.

[kmb42vt]

Just to answer the "Why" about why it doesn't work if you extract the latest version to anywhere other than /opt, it's because your system is still pointing to the version in /opt (e.g. if you just type "thunderbird" in a terminal you will get the "installed" version).

To make an alternative work without overwriting the default version:

Download and extract to wherever you want (e.g. /home)
Run it with sh /home/thunderbird/thunderbird

Note the fully qualified path to run it. This avoids the default version being automatically run. It doesn't matter if you cd into the installed directory, you still need to run it with the fully qualified path if you put it anywhere other than /opt. You also need the fully qualified path in any launcher or shortcut that you set up.

If you are happy to overwrite the default version (I have) then extract to /opt as described by kmb42vt. Just running thunderbird will launch the new version then. If you want to keep the default version and run the new version, remember to use the full path.

Good point. I always rename the original '/opt/thunderbird' directory before I extract the new version into the same directory so the old version isn't lost. After I'm happy with the new version then I delete the original.

Question: does you're method create a new Thunderbird profile within the '/home/thunderbird/thunderbird' directory or does it still use the default one created in '~/.mozilla'? For myself I have separate Firefox and Thunderbird profiles in one single folder located in my /home directory and just drag them around from distro to distro.

[cpatrick08]

Hi folks,

I just noticed that, while firefox is at a recent version (5.0) in the linuxmint LMDE repository, thunderbird is some versions behind (3.1.7 vs. 5.0). As the version from the ppa:mozilla-team/thunderbird-stable natty did not work for me, I would like to ask the LMDE repository maintainers kindly to add thunderbird in its recent version to the LMDE repository.

Maybe some of you support this plea?

mfs.

just go to http://mozilla.debian.net change squeeze to wheezy and iceweasel keep it at release then follow steps to get new version of icedove/thunderbirt to icedove icedove is made of completely free software but is the same as thunderbird http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Co ... ct#Icedove