Thunderbird email links (again!)

[Qqmike]

Problem:
In a Thunderbird email, I click on a link to a web page, but the Firefox browser fails to open.

Yep. Have solved this problem at least four dozen times in the past. Today it doesn't work. Have spent a good two hours on it.

Today, I installed updated versions of both Firefox (3.6.6) and Thunderbird (3.1) from Ubuntuzilla.

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The standard solution is and has been:

[Thunderbird] Links in emails don't open in browser
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ubuntuzilla/index.php?title=Ubuntuzilla_FAQ#.5BThunderbird.5D_ Links_in_emails_don.27t_open_in_browser
Solution:
Add the following lines to your user.js file inside your .thunderbird profile (if user.js file doesn't exist yet, just create a new file with this content).
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/usr/bin/firefox");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http","/usr/bin/firefox");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https","/usr/bin/firefox");

Restart Thunderbird for this change to take effect.

If you want to use some browser other than firefox, then put in the full path for that browser, instead of /usr/bin/firefox, in the above lines.
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Just like the discussion here:
<SOLVED> Thunderbird email links won't open in Firefox (or anywhere)
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3096183.0
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Fyi,
/usr/bin/firefox IS there, and is a link to /opt/firefox/firefox. I closed FX and clicked on /usr/bin/firefox, and that indeed did open FX.

So, to state the obvious now ... Any ideas what I'm missing here?

[skunk]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

I believe user.js gets rewritten each time thunderbird is closed. You might want to try adding the user_pref(...) calls to the file while thunderbird is not running.

As an alternative, you can edit the preferences while thunderbird is running like this:

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor

This will open a familiar about:config window and you can add or edit the values of network.protocol-handler.app.http etc

[Qqmike]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

As I indicated, that's what I've done (through user.js).

A check of the about:config shows:

network.protocol-handler.app.ftp; /usr/bin/firefox
network.protocol-handler.app.http; /usr/bin/firefox
network.protocol-handler.app.https; /usr/bin/firefox

which (I believe) it should.

[skunk]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

No idea. On my machine a new tab is opened in firefox containing the link as expected.

[Qqmike]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

I'm toying with the idea of re-installing T-Bird. Hate to do that, though, having to re-move various profile files and re-configure. I've never had this problem implementing the standard (user.js edits) solution.

[MoonRise]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

Q,

I'm not seeing that behavior here with the latest repo supplied updates to Thunderbird. Could it be an issue with Ubuntuzilla?

[Qqmike]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

I've never had problems with Ubuntuzilla's package in the past, and they do support that question in their FAQ where they give the "standard" solution (user.js file). Haven't yet had time to try a re-install or uninstall/install.

[Qqmike]

Re: Thunderbird email links (again!)

Fixed it with a complete removal and re-install.

Lesson learned here: Do not trust either Adept or Synaptic to "completely" remove everything including the package's configuration files. The config files may not be removed. In this case, I had to go into ~/,thunderbird and manually delete the entire (remaining) contents (which were config files) before doing a new, clean re-install. (btw, in my testing, I did also try a re-start of both T-Bird and the PC to see if that would give me a clean slate after doing a "complete removal," and restarting had no effect. As I say, I had to manually intervene and do the remaining cleanup of the old T-Bird.)