Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 2012-05-20

Chapter 37. Other X-based Programs

Thunderbird-12.0

Introduction to Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a stand-alone mail/news client based on the Mozilla codebase.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.1 platform.

Package Information

Additional Downloads

Thunderbird Dependencies

Required

alsa-lib-1.0.25, gtk+-2.24.10, Zip-3.0 and UnZip-6.0

Optional

D-Bus GLib Bindings-0.98, Doxygen-1.7.5, gnome-vfs-2.24.4 and libgnomeui-2.24.5 (for integration with the old version of Gnome), libnotify-0.7.5, NSS-3.13.4, NSPR-4.9, startup-notification-0.12, SQLite-3.7.11, yasm-1.2.0 (or libvpx-1.0.0), Hunspell, Libevent, Valgrind (only for testing the jemalloc code) and Wget-1.13.4

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/Thunderbird

Installation of Thunderbird

The configuration of Thunderbird is accomplished by creating a mozconfig file containing the desired configuration options. A default mozconfig is created below. To see the entire list of available configuration options (and a brief description of each), issue ./configure --help. Create the file with the following command: 

cat > mozconfig << "EOF"
# If you have a multicore machine you can speed up the build by running
# several jobs at once, but if you have a single core, delete this line:
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j4"

# If you have installed Yasm delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-webm

# If you have installed DBus-Glib delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-dbus

# If you have installed wireless-tools delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi

# If you have installed libnotify delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-libnotify

# Uncomment these if you have installed them:
# ac_add_options --enable-startup-notification
# ac_add_options --enable-system-hunspell
# ac_add_options --enable-system-sqlite
# ac_add_options --with-system-libevent
# ac_add_options --with-system-libvpx
# ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
# ac_add_options --with-system-nss

mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/thunderbuild
ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-static
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
ac_add_options --enable-shared
ac_add_options --enable-system-cairo
ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
ac_add_options --with-pthreads
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
EOF

Compile Thunderbird by issuing the following commands: 

patch -p1 < ../thunderbird-12.0_gcc-4.7-1.patch &&
make -f client.mk &&
make -C thunderbuild/mail/installer

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install Thunderbird by running the following commands as the root user: 

mkdir -p /usr/lib/thunderbird-12.0 &&
tar xf thunderbuild/mozilla/dist/thunderbird-12.0.en-US.linux-$(uname -m).tar.bz2 \
  -C /usr/lib/thunderbird-12.0 --strip-components=1 &&
ln -s ../lib/thunderbird-12.0/thunderbird /usr/bin

The above instructions just install the parts you need to run Thunderbird. Alternatively, if you want to install the full Thunderbird development environment (Note, this installs more than half a gigabyte of extra files and so is not recommended) as the root user: 

make -C thunderbuild install

Command Explanations

patch -p1 < ../thunderbird-12.0_gcc-4.7-1.patch: This patch fixes various files to ensure that Thunderbird compiles with GCC 4.7.

make -f client.mk: Mozilla products are packaged to allow the use of a configuration file which can be used to pass the configuration settings to the configure command. make uses the client.mk file to get initial configuration and setup parameters.

make -C thunderbuild/mail/installer: this runs make in the thunderbuild/mail/installer folder. This gathers together all the parts of Thunderbird and compresses them into a tarball.

tar -xfv thunderbuild/mozilla/dist ...: This untars Thunderbird, the -C option uncompresses the files in /usr/lib/thunderbird-12.0. The --strip-components=1 option removes the leading 'thunderbird' directory from the filenames, allowing us to untar it into a versioned directory.

Configuring Thunderbird

Configuration Information

If your Window or Desktop Manager does not allow you to configure a default browser, you can add a configuration parameter to Thunderbird so that a browser will start when when you click on an Internet/intranet/local URL. The procedure to check or modify any of the configuration parameters is quite simple and the instructions here can be used to view or modify any of the parameters.

First, open the configuration dialog by opening the “Edit” drop-down menu. Choose “Preferences” and then click on the “Advanced” icon on the top menu bar. Choose the “General” tab and click on the “Config Editor” button. This will display a list of the configuration preferences and information related to each one. You can use the “Filter:” bar to enter search criteria and narrow down the listed items. Changing a preference can be done using two methods. One, if the preference has a boolean value (True/False), simply double-click on the preference to toggle the value and two, for other preferences simply right-click on the desired line, choose “Modify” from the menu and change the value. Creating new preference items is accomplished in the same way, except choose “New” from the menu and provide the desired data into the fields when prompted.

The configuration preference item you need to check so that Thunderbird uses a specified browser is the network.protocol-handler.app.http which should be set to the path of the desired browser, e.g. /usr/bin/firefox.

[Tip]

Tip

There is a multitude of configuration parameters you can tweak to customize Thunderbird. A very extensive, but not so up-to-date list of these parameters can be found at http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html.

If you use a desktop environment like Gnome or KDE you may wish to create a thunderbird.desktop file so that Thunderbird appears in the panel's menus. If you didn't enable startup-notification in your mozconfig change the StartupNotify line to false. As the root user: 

mkdir -p /usr/share/applications &&
cat > /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop << "EOF" &&
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Thunderbird
Comment=Fetch Your Email
Icon=thunderbird
Exec=thunderbird
Categories=Network;GTK;Application;Email;News;
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
EOF
ln -sv -f /usr/lib/thunderbird-12.0/chrome/icons/default/default256.png \
  /usr/share/pixmaps/thunderbird.png

Contents

Installed Programs: thunderbird
Installed Libraries: Numerous libraries, email/newsgroups components, plugins, extensions, and helper modules installed in /usr/lib/thunderbird-12.0
Installed Directories: /usr/lib/thunderbird-12.0

Short Descriptions

thunderbird

is Mozilla's email and newsgroup client.

Last updated on 2012-05-16 10:43:09 +0000