Thunderbird update issue

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linux_rules
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Thunderbird update issue

Post by linux_rules »

Hi,
When the the notification window pops up saying there's a stability & security update available for thunderbird, I apply immediately. But it stays at "connecting to the update server". It stays like this forever. This happens every time I apply the updates.
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bugmenot2012

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by bugmenot2012 »

That's probably because you're using the official lmde repositories which are lagging behind by a couple versions.

At first I trusted lmde to be what they adverstised it was, i.e. a rolling release. When it figured out that it was indeed a fixed release receiving very little updates indeed and suddenly it was ubuntu all over again with software lagging behind and upgrades not coing in a timely fashion, I switched back to pointing at the debian testing repositories.

I assume when nerfing down the included auto-update in thunderbird to prevent it from discovering official updates they missed something, and now you can actually see when updates are out but cannot install them through the official mozilla channel. In firefox, it's been done right and the update mechanism will lie to you and tell there's no update available when your firefox is actually behind by a few versions.

So in short, you have to wait for firefox and thunderbird updates because the linux mint team can't keep up with mozilla and doesn't want you to use the official release but their own modified version coming with broken addon (i.e. stylish), highly annoying custom google search and the broken liar update mechanism.
linux_rules
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by linux_rules »

That's bad news :shock:
Mike54

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by Mike54 »

linux_rules wrote:That's bad news :shock:
If you want to apply the update manually, it is actually quite simple. I've been running Nightly builds of Firefox and Earlybird in LMDE, since I installed it. Which means I am updating both applications, each and ever morning.

Download the .tar.bz2 file for whatever build you want to run.
If you have an instance of Thunderbird running, close it.
Open your Home folder and click on File System.
Right-click on the opt folder and select Open as administrator.
Rename your Thunderbird folder to Thunderbird-old
Drag your .tar.bz2 into the opt folder.
Right-click the .tar.bz2 and select Extract Here.
Once the extraction is complete, delete the. tar.bz2, close the open directories (opt and Home) and you're finished. Reopen thunderbird and you will be running the version you downloaded.

The entire process takes less than two minutes and you're easily updated and ready to go. If the new version is playing well with others, you can then go back into opt and delete the Thunderbird-old folder. I try to save earlier working versions, just in case. But in years of running these Nightly builds, I've only run into issues on 3 or 4 occasions.

I hope this helps.
linux_rules
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by linux_rules »

Mike54 wrote:
linux_rules wrote:That's bad news :shock:
If you want to apply the update manually, it is actually quite simple. I've been running Nightly builds of Firefox and Earlybird in LMDE, since I installed it. Which means I am updating both applications, each and ever morning.

Download the .tar.bz2 file for whatever build you want to run.
If you have an instance of Thunderbird running, close it.
Open your Home folder and click on File System.
Right-click on the opt folder and select Open as administrator.
Rename your Thunderbird folder to Thunderbird-old
Drag your .tar.bz2 into the opt folder.
Right-click the .tar.bz2 and select Extract Here.
Once the extraction is complete, delete the. tar.bz2, close the open directories (opt and Home) and you're finished. Reopen thunderbird and you will be running the version you downloaded.

The entire process takes less than two minutes and you're easily updated and ready to go. If the new version is playing well with others, you can then go back into opt and delete the Thunderbird-old folder. I try to save earlier working versions, just in case. But in years of running these Nightly builds, I've only run into issues on 3 or 4 occasions.

I hope this helps.
^ DId all that but Thunderbird won't open.

Code: Select all

$ thunderbird 
exec: 392: /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin: not found
The file thunderbird-bin exists. I checked.
linux_rules
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by linux_rules »

Installed the package lsb-core. Got the idea from http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ed-899190/

Now executing TB prints

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$ ./thunderbird
./thunderbird-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libdbus-glib-1.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
The package libdbus seems to be installed

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$ aptitude search libdbus-glib
i   libdbus-glib-1-2                - simple interprocess messaging system (GLib
p   libdbus-glib-1-2-dbg            - simple interprocess messaging system (GLib
i   libdbus-glib-1-dev              - simple interprocess messaging system (GLib
p   libdbus-glib-1-doc              - simple interprocess messaging system (GLib
i   libdbus-glib1.0-cil             - CLI implementation of D-Bus (GLib mainloop
p   libdbus-glib1.0-cil-dev         - CLI implementation of D-Bus (GLib mainloop
Mike54

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by Mike54 »

Apologies, but I am not able to help you further. I just updated Nightly 13 and earlybird 12 on my LMDE machine, using those very steps.
grizzler

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by grizzler »

@linux_rules,

My computer has been running Thunderbird and Firefox from the Mozilla tarballs for years (I have yet to find a distribution that really manages to keep up with Mozilla products...). In my experience they never need any additional packages but just run 'out of the box'.

I'm currently using 32 bit LMDE with update pack 4. Have you been trying to run a 32 bit Thunderbird on a 64 bit system by any chance? Other than that, I can't think of why it doesn't work for you (not that I'm claiming that combination wouldn't work - I just have no experience with it).
linux_rules
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by linux_rules »

grizzler wrote:@linux_rules,

My computer has been running Thunderbird and Firefox from the Mozilla tarballs for years (I have yet to find a distribution that really manages to keep up with Mozilla products...). In my experience they never need any additional packages but just run 'out of the box'.

I'm currently using 32 bit LMDE with update pack 4. Have you been trying to run a 32 bit Thunderbird on a 64 bit system by any chance? Other than that, I can't think of why it doesn't work for you (not that I'm claiming that combination wouldn't work - I just have no experience with it).
Yes, the TB tar.gz is 32 bit while my lmde installation is 64 bit. I will continue with the default version as I see no alternative.
grizzler

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by grizzler »

Well then, maybe you should try one of Mozilla's 64 bit builds for linux:

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla ... ux-x86_64/
Mike54

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by Mike54 »

Thanks for the assist, grizzler. You were obviously seeing something I was not.
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kmb42vt
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by kmb42vt »

Just to add my two cents worth (and for those new to Linux Mint)... :D

Since Firefox and Thunderbird program files reside in /opt/ in LMDE (in their respective directories) I replaced the (Mint installed) Firefox and Thunderbird directories with the latest versions soon after installing the first version of LMDE and I've been able to easily update both programs ever since.

You can get the latest versions of the programs here:

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

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

Note: Users of 32-bit LMDE, Firefox and Thunderbird can be downloaded from the official download sites. For 64-bit LMDE users, you'll have to use the above links and navigate to the 64-bit versions of each program and download from there.

To do this you have to open /opt/ as "Administrator" and completely remove the default Firefox and Thunderbird directories and then extract the downloaded Thunderbird and Firefox .tar.bz2 files into /opt/ (creates new a new Thunderbird and Firefox directories). Do not uninstall the original programs via Synaptic first, just install manually as told above. Also, this won't affect your Thunderbird and Firefox profiles in any way.

Note: This is the only time you'll have to do this, by the way.

If you've done the above correctly, simply clicking on Firefox or Thunderbird icons in the menu (on the desktop or panel) will start the programs normally as usual.

Updating Firefox and Thunderbird: Firefox and Thunderbird, like any other program in Linux Mint, needs root access in order to perform an update whether updating is done via the terminal, Synaptic or manually. In the case of manually installed Firefox and Thunderbird this is easy. When you see an update is available in Thunderbird's "About" dialog box for example, close Thunderbird, open the terminal and type:

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sudo thunderbird
Do not close the terminal!

Thunderbird will start in root mode. Ignore what it looks like as it will return to normal when you're done. Open "About" and you should see that an update is available--click the update button and let it finish. Once the update is completed, restart Thunderbird (it will restart back into root mode). Once Thunderbird has restarted, close it and at the terminal, you'll see that the normal command prompt has been returned. Close the terminal and you're done. Thunderbird will start normally.

Firefox is updated the same way. Just substitute "firefox" for "thunderbird" in the terminal.

Okay, so all the above sounds rather complicated but after the first time you'll find it's a very simple process that takes way more time to write than it does to actually accomplish. :)
"Humph. Choice, it is the quintessential Linux delusion, simultaneously the source of it's greatest strength, and it's greatest weakness." (All apologies to The Architect)
linux_rules
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by linux_rules »

@grizzler

Thanks. The latest TB is now working.
Tyro

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by Tyro »

kmb42vt wrote:Just to add my two cents worth (and for those new to Linux Mint)... :D

You can get the latest versions of the programs here:

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

Thunderbird: http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla ... /releases/
....
To do this you have to open /opt/ as "Administrator" and completely remove the default Firefox and Thunderbird directories
I found renaming firefox worked well enough. I just appended the directory with a _1.
Okay, so all the above sounds rather complicated but after the first time you'll find it's a very simple process that takes way more time to write than it does to actually accomplish. :)
Takes more time to find a usable reference than it takes to do anything.

Could it really be as simple as entering thunderbird in a root terminal? yes.

Thank you.

A heads up: On my machine (i5) the first time Bird is started after updating there is about a 5 count between the 'checking plug-in update/ compatible' screen going away and Bird opening.

A 5 count is more time than needed to make one think they made an error, nope.

About the only other thing I can add is, I opened /opt as Administrator by right clicking in Nautilus. Made updating Fox simple as copy-paste-rename-double click-expand-thank you. Almost like being back in ... a different OS.

Another thing, using the GUI as Admin, don't do this stuff 2:30 Am, makes it real easy to think you're pasting FireFox when you're actually pasting and expanding T-Bird with the default overwrite set .... Oops ... and if that happens reinstall Bird 9 using Synaptic. Make sure you also reinstall Birds language packs. Fact, I think the language pack is more important than Bird itself.
In LMDE using Synaptic to reinstall Bird 9 to fix the breakage so it can be re-updated to 10 ... searching thunderbird in synaptic results in icedove at the top of the list with thunderbird way down the list and the language pack even further down the list.

Another note, I did a complete removal of Thunderbird, not sure if I did a complete removal of the language pack, because the language pack is so far down the list I didn't see it the first couple times, when I finally saw it I think I did a complete removal but I'm not sure.
Also I use multiple profiles and even after this little circus I created (and as has been mentioned by kmb) the profiles were unaffected. OTOH my profiles/data are in the Win7 section of the hard drive. Probably doesn't make a difference but thought I should mention it.

Yep, hardest part of learning Linux is the research .....
craigevil

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by craigevil »

If you do:

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chown <username> -R /opt/thunderbird (replace <username> with your log in user name).
You won't have to worry about using sudo/su to update it. Same goes for Firefox.

Of course on a system with more than one user leaving it as root is a better idea.

Firefox and Thunderbird updated yesterday for me anyway to version 11.
Tomas_IV
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by Tomas_IV »

Hey guys,
this is very good topic. I have one question though and maybe one possible improvement:
  • The question @kmb42vt and others letting the orig. package installed like
    open /opt/ as "Administrator" and completely remove the default Firefox and Thunderbird directories and then extract the downloaded Thunderbird and Firefox .tar.bz2 files into /opt/ (creates new a new Thunderbird and Firefox directories). Do not uninstall the original programs via Synaptic
    . The question is: What will happen when an update via update manager or Synaptic arives? I mean, the apt system is not aware of the manual update, right? So I would suppose, If your original Thunderbird package was 9.0.1, you delete the folder and install Thunderbird 11.x.x, then when a version 9.0.2 makes it into Mint repos, update manager or any other apt tool should go on and try to overwrite the 11 with 9.0.2. Or not?
  • The improvement proposal @craigevil. Please correct me if I overlooked something, but I think that for multiuser system, instead of doing chown of the /opt/thunderbird to single user, a chmod g+w would work similar way, but more appropriate for multiuser environment. I mean you can choose group assigned to users you trust enough to do admin tasks, like the adm group used for this on LinuxMint, or create a group just for the users allowed to upgrade FF and TB. The commands then could be (replace adm with group of your choice):

    Code: Select all

    chown -R :adm /opt/thunderbird
    chmod -R g+w /opt/thunderbird
    
    That should allow all members of that group to overwrite files in the /opt/thunderbird, thus allow them to do upgrades from TB GUI without password. Not tested with TB though, as I have the concerns in the first question, so I did not manually installed TB yet. I'm using it this way for other manually installed software in /usr/local.
grizzler

Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by grizzler »

Tomas_IV wrote:The question is: What will happen when an update via update manager or Synaptic arives? I mean, the apt system is not aware of the manual update, right? So I would suppose, If your original Thunderbird package was 9.0.1, you delete the folder and install Thunderbird 11.x.x, then when a version 9.0.2 makes it into Mint repos, update manager or any other apt tool should go on and try to overwrite the 11 with 9.0.2. Or not?
Yep. It will happily scribble all over your manually installed version.

My own original solution for that was to uninstall the repository version altogether, making sure I had a copy of the .desktop file to put back so I didn't lose the menu entry. An alternative would be to (manually) alter the file that tells your package manager which version of Thunderbird is installed.
Load /var/lib/dpkg/status in gedit (as administrator), search for Package: Thunderbird, change the number following Version: to something like 1000.0 and resave the file. Chances are your LMDE's update system will never touch Thunderbird again.

[Disclaimer: when you mess with your system's "internals" like this, you do so entirely at your own risk!]
Tomas_IV
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by Tomas_IV »

grizzler wrote: Load /var/lib/dpkg/status in gedit (as administrator), search for Package: Thunderbird, change the number following Version: to something like 1000.0 and resave the file. Chances are your LMDE's update system will never touch Thunderbird again.

[Disclaimer: when you mess with your system's "internals" like this, you do so entirely at your own risk!]
OK, I did it this way, thanks for pointing this possibility out. I have given it version number 1000.1-disableupdate, to see more clearly that I messed with it. We will see if there are any glitches in the future (like dependency problems), but so far, so good.
I also did this with language package (thunderbird-l10n-cs in my case). I should have unistalled it beforehand instead, but I forgot it was there. It would also mess with the manually installed Czech version of Thunderbird in case of update or subsequent uninstall.
I also realized afterwards, that I have some extensions installed through apt/synaptic. I have left them as they are for now. Again, I suppose it would be better to uninstall them all first, then do the thing, then install needed extensions from Thunderbird. But I suppose I can still start over in case of any problems.
revelationman
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Re: Thunderbird update issue

Post by revelationman »

I know this is an old post, but the way to update does work, I use it all the time,
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