'Portable' Thunderbird - current 68.0 - 32 & 64-bit

Browsers, email, chat, etc.
Message
Author
User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

'Portable' Thunderbird - current 68.0 - 32 & 64-bit

#1 Post by Mike Walsh »

Morning, all.

Having tried my hand at a couple of 'portables', after Fredx181 showed the way with 'FF-Quantum portable', a thought struck me. Ok, it's probably been done before - many times - but a portable version of Thunderbird sounded like a good idea.

Carry both browser & e-mail around on a flash drive wherever you go.....

Yeah, I know a lot of you will say, 'Why not make a portable version of SeaMonkey? It's all in one application'.

Unfortunately, I don't like SeaMonkey..!! (I don't think I'm alone, either...)

-------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway; here is Thunderbird 60.5.1, packed as a 'portable'. Tested as working in Tahr 6.0.6, Slackos 560 & 570, and BK's 'masterpiece', Precise 5.7.1. (32-bit).....and Xenialpup64 7.5 (64-bit).

You can find the 32-bit version here:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uLkfIl ... sp=sharing

.....and the 64-bit version here:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4yVtx ... sp=sharing

As with the other portables, untar 'em, then place the resulting thunderbird32/thunderbird64 directory anywhere you like. Then start by clicking on the 'tb' script inside. This creates your profile within the directory.....and by starting with the 'tb' script every time, will continue to use that profile.

Enjoy.

Edit:- If you find TB-portable won't fire up, it's almost certainly due to the GTK3 libs. The set I've included in each build won't necessarily work for every Pup on that platform. If that's the case, install GTK3 from your Puppy's PPM, and rename the 'extralibs' folder to something different, so the script doesn't find it. If it doesn't find what it's looking for there, it'll then look in the system files, and find the ones installed from the PPM.....and use them instead.


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Fri 13 Sep 2019, 01:16, edited 3 times in total.

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#2 Post by backi »

This is really cool Stuff! :D :D :D

User avatar
fredx181
Posts: 4448
Joined: Wed 11 Dec 2013, 12:37
Location: holland

#3 Post by fredx181 »

@All, for info:

If you have thunderbird setup on your system the standard way (account made, mails in inbox, sent etc..) then you can synchronize it with Mike's portable.
- Open with rox (or other filemanager) the (hidden) folder ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default (in my case it's 8ot2tkkn.default , see pic)
- Create in the extracted portable directory (where the tb script is located, e.g. thunderbird32) a folder named profile
(if it already exists, it's OK, but better make it empty by removing the files inside)
- Open it with rox (or other filemanager), place next to the ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default folder (see pic)
- Select all files in the ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default folder
- Drag and drop them to the profile folder (use copy)
Then, after copying is done, when you run the portable thunderbird (tb script) it should have all included (same as your standard thunderbird setup)

Fred
Attachments
thunderbird-profile.jpg
thunderbird sync profile
(223.33 KiB) Downloaded 541 times

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#4 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Fred.

Snap..! Exactly how I did it myself.

Of course, most of my existing ~/.thunderbird directories are kinda redundant, now. Thunderbird-portable lives on a remote, auto-mounted 'data' partition, and all I've done is to run up a MenuEntry .pet (which I've installed to each Puppy) that calls the 'tb' script to fire it up.

All Pups are now literally 'singing from the same hymn-sheet'..!

Thanks for clarifying the procedure for other Puppians. I was going to do it myself, but you've saved me the trouble.

Cheers, mate.


Mike. :wink:

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#5 Post by backi »

Hi Fred!
Followed your advice .
Just works ......but one Thing is a bit confusing me ......so let me try to explain.


Downloaded and extracted Thunderbird-60.5.1-i686-portable.gz.
A Folder Thunderbird-60.5.1-i686-portable.gz.extracted was the result..
Inside of this Folder is Folder Thunderbird-60.5.1-i686-portable.
Inside this Folder one will find the Folder thunderbird32.

I followed your Procedure above .....and then started thunderbird from Folder thunderbird32.....clicking tb .
Setup started .....waiting for download of all my Mails etc.......waited till finished .
After everything was finished .....i found a new Folder inside of Folder Thunderbird-60.5.1-i686-portable.gz.extracted ......named mnt .
Inside of Folder mnt..... two Sub-folders ...
a. one with Name sda7
b. another one with Name sdb1....
Both are containing (hidden) Folders named .thunderbird .
This sda7 was the former Location/Drive/Partition where i placed (hidden) Folder .thunderbird before on another Laptop using Thunderbird.
Sdb1 is the Location where i store my normal/non-portable Thunderbird now on this Laptop where i actually performing all those Tasks i am describing now.
Bit confusing i have to admit .......try to resume .

Inside Folder Thunderbird-60.5.1-i686-portable.gz.extracted somehow a Folder mnt was created after Thunderbirds first run....with Folders and Sub-Folders mentioned above .
Dont really expect an explanation .

Did this mnt Folder appear for you also ..?

Everything is working fine after reboot ....

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#6 Post by backi »

UPDATE :

Copied the whole portable Thunderbird (from Experiment above ) which included also this mysterious Folder mnt..... with its Subfolder described above to an Usb Stick where i have installed Xenial Dog ..
Booted with this Stick ....but when starting tb ....."Your thunderbird Profile cannot be loaded . It is may be missing or inaccessible ."

So i am asking myself .....just transfering Profile from static Thunderbird to portable Thunderbird will work? .
In my case it did work on the same Drive......but when copying this Thunderbird portable to another Usb-Stick and using it from there (on the same Machine ) did not work in my Case .
Using Thunderbird portable without Profile "Transplant" on another Stick......no problem.
What is your Experience ?

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#7 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ backi:-

I had that exact same problem with 'missing or inaccessible profile' last week, when I was setting up a second Puppy on the ancient Dell lappie. In this case, the problem was with Firefox, but FF and TB both use pretty much the same internals.

Take a look in /root/.cache; in my case, I'd got a dead thunderbird sym-link, hanging around in there somewhere.....I sym-link a lot of stuff remotely. (Shows as an orange triangle with an exclamation mark ("!")) Deleting that was all it took to get things working again as they should.

You may actually need to delete the existing 'thunderbird' directory in /root/.cache. I'm thinking the two are interfering with each other.....the more so if you copied the thunderbird stuff from that Puppy into the 'portable' version's 'profile' directory. Thunderbird will be finding two identical sets of data, in two different locations, both with the same 'profile identifier'.....and it's getting confused.

Make sure you have a back-up copy of your Thunderbird profile before you try this.


Mike. :wink:

dancytron
Posts: 1519
Joined: Wed 18 Jul 2012, 19:20

#8 Post by dancytron »

fredx181 wrote:@All, for info:

If you have thunderbird setup on your system the standard way (account made, mails in inbox, sent etc..) then you can synchronize it with Mike's portable.
- Open with rox (or other filemanager) the (hidden) folder ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default (in my case it's 8ot2tkkn.default , see pic)
- Create in the extracted portable directory (where the tb script is located, e.g. thunderbird32) a folder named profile
(if it already exists, it's OK, but better make it empty by removing the files inside)
- Open it with rox (or other filemanager), place next to the ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default folder (see pic)
- Select all files in the ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default folder
- Drag and drop them to the profile folder (use copy)
Then, after copying is done, when you run the portable thunderbird (tb script) it should have all included (same as your standard thunderbird setup)

Fred
I set this up following these instructions, with a /sda2/StretchLinked/thunderbird64 folder with the .../profile folder inside of it.

When I try to run the tb script I get this.
root@ChromeDog64:/live/image/StretchLinked/thunderbird64# ./tb
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /mnt/sda2/StretchLinked/thunderbird64/libmozgtk.so:
libmirclient.so.9: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.
But when I run ./thunderbird, it works and contains my past emails.

Am I missing something?

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#9 Post by Mike Walsh »

Now, then:-

Just made a fantastic discovery!

If (like me) you've been a long-term user of the 'FireTray' extension for ThunderBird - which allows minimising T-Bird to an icon in the 'notification area', along with an indication of new mail having arrived - then you'll have been bemoaning the fact that, due to the shift from 'legacy' extensions to the new Web-extensions API, the old FireTray has ceased to work.

Which is bloody annoying.....and is the main reason why, although TB60 runs in all my Pups (except for very old ones, that is), I've been sticking with TB52, being the very final release where FireTray still worked.

There is now a 'fix'.....and you can get FireTray working with TB60. Yay!

-----------------------------------------

I was doing a wee bit of research into the current state-of-play of this extension, which led me to this thread on the Mozilla forums. Reading down through the thread, there's a post from aamadis, where he/she mentions 'BirdTray' (tried it, didn't like it.....needs Qt5 installed for it to work, and y'all know my views on Qt5 by now!); and also mentions an 'update' for FireTray. This leads to this page over at Github, which in turn leads you to this page.....where you can download the .xpi file for version 0.6.2 of FireTray, that'll work with TB60.

---------------------------------------------

Download the file to a safe location. Fire up TB60. Go into Menu (the 'hamburger' symbol, top right)->Addons->Extensions. Look up the top for the wee box with a gear symbol. Use the drop-down to select 'Install from file'. Click on this, then navigate to where you saved the 0.6.2 .xpi file, then OK it.You'll get the older-style Addons Installer window come up (TB still uses this); just follow it through to OK and install the extension.

Then you'll need to re-start Thunderbird. When she fires up, if you're using your same profile from previous versions of TB, in the notification area you will get a brand, spanking-new up-to-date FireTray icon.....with all the functionality of the old one, including maximising/minimising TB itself, and indications for new mail.

It needs libappindicator3 to work, but so did the old one. If you've previously had FireTray working, this will too. Most Pups appear to have this by default, anyway.

----------------------------------------------

If you've not used FireTray before, then set the 'Windows' tab of FireTray's preferences to look like this:-


Image


This will give the icon the maximise/minimise ability.....and new mails will be obvious from the change in the icon.To get a message window come up, lower right of the screen, detailing new e-mails when you click the icon, you'll need to go into Preferences->'General' tab, and tick the checkbox for 'When new messages arrive : Show an alert'. This enables the notification window.

To get the main window to open from the 'notification window', just hover over the message title itself, which will turn blue; click, and the account window for that account will open, listing all your emails.

Hope that'll make some of you happy again.....! It certainly has me, 'cos I've always reckoned this to be one of the most useful Thunderbird extensions ever released. Long may it continue to run.


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Thu 21 Feb 2019, 10:57, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#10 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ Dan:-
dancytron wrote:I set this up following these instructions, with a /sda2/StretchLinked/thunderbird64 folder with the .../profile folder inside of it.

When I try to run the tb script I get this.
root@ChromeDog64:/live/image/StretchLinked/thunderbird64# ./tb
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /mnt/sda2/StretchLinked/thunderbird64/libmozgtk.so:
libmirclient.so.9: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.



But when I run ./thunderbird, it works and contains my past emails.

Am I missing something?
Mm. 'Libmirclient', huh? That's a new one on me. Sounds like it must be something to do with the ill-fated Mir display server Canonical spent so much time & effort trying to bring to release.....and which was ultimately dropped like a lead balloon when they realised nobody was the slightest bit interested in supporting it.

Maybe this will help?


Mike. :wink:

User avatar
fredx181
Posts: 4448
Joined: Wed 11 Dec 2013, 12:37
Location: holland

#11 Post by fredx181 »

dancytron wrote:But when I run ./thunderbird, it works
That says that the dependencies are installed on your system, but the portable setup doesn't work.
I could reproduce this on Debian Stretch 64-bit and found that it's because of libgdk-3.so.0.1800.9 in the extralibs folder

Code: Select all

ldd ./libgdk-3.so.0.1800.9 | grep 'not found'
	libmirclient.so.9 => not found
One solution is to rename (or remove) the extralibs folder and then it should work OK.

Btw, no such problem with the 32-bit portable.

Fred

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#12 Post by backi »

deleted
Last edited by backi on Thu 21 Feb 2019, 13:44, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#13 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ backi:-

I think where you're going wrong is in the initial 'copying' phase.

From the sound of things, you haven't even 'moved' the thunderbird32 directory to a different location before copying stuff over; it's still inside the '...tar.gz.extracted' directory when you do this. You really ought to move it to its intended location before you even start copying.

Be that as it may, I've had no problems whatsoever (after copying the profile across) with running this from a remotely-mounted partition; I'm currently 'sharing' this between around 8 Puppies, and it's working fine in all of them.

One other thing; '...keeps all my downloaded Mails from Server'. Out of curiosity, are you running IMAP, or POP3? In other words, do you keep your emails 'in the cloud'.....or are you of the older 'school of thought' that likes to download and keep all your emails locally? Not that it should make a scrap of difference, since Thunderbird should work equally well with either setup.....but since I've never used the POP3 method, I don't know whether there's any extra directories created locally that need to be linked to.

Perhaps this is where things are going wrong for you? Can't say with any degree of certainty.....

------------------------------------------------

@ Fred:-

With regard to Dan's 'libmirclient' issue. I know libgdk/libgtk-3.0 are running at later versions in newer Pups; the ones I included in the 'extralibs' directory are the older 'Precise' versions that I originally posted the GTK3 .pet for (~400.4). D'you think I should remove these, and leave people with the advice to make sure they have the 'correct' issue for their particular Pup instead? It's possible there's a conflict arising here between different versions.....


Mike. :wink:

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#14 Post by backi »

Hi Mike !
Seems your Diagnosis is correct.

Regarding IMAP or POP3 .......do it older 'school of thought' that likes to download and keep all your emails locally .
Thanks !

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#15 Post by backi »

Now works with Fred`s and Mike`s Advice.
What caused me Trouble where some old Settings from Edit> Account Settings>Server Settings >Local Directory (at the Bottom)--- from my former Machine .
Did created a new Folder in thunderbird32/profile/Imap Mail/MYNEWFOLDER and pointed to it in Server Settings.
Now is doing fine .
Very Cool :lol: :lol: :lol: :D :D

P.S:
Add-on GcontactSync no longer works in new Thunderbird ....what a fuck...

See you later !

User avatar
fredx181
Posts: 4448
Joined: Wed 11 Dec 2013, 12:37
Location: holland

#16 Post by fredx181 »

Mike Walsh wrote:@ Fred:-

With regard to Dan's 'libmirclient' issue. I know libgdk/libgtk-3.0 are running at later versions in newer Pups; the ones I included in the 'extralibs' directory are the older 'Precise' versions that I originally posted the GTK3 .pet for (~400.4). D'you think I should remove these, and leave people with the advice to make sure they have the 'correct' issue for their particular Pup instead? It's possible there's a conflict arising here between different versions.....
Hi Mike, yes, there's a risk of conflict in including these gtk3 libs, but not sure what's wise..., the best proof is testing it on diifferent Pups.

Fred

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#17 Post by backi »

Tried to run this Thunderbird 32bit Version on a Bionic Dog 64bit.....but does not start.

Another Question----- in Case i download a "normal" Thunderbird or Pale-moon or Firefox tar.gz --- extract it--- and just copy this tb , plmn or ff script from a portable Version to the Folder of a non portable version and execute this script from there ,
does it work from now on as a portable Version ?
Is it as easy like it sounds ?

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#18 Post by Mike Walsh »

backi wrote:Tried to run this Thunderbird 32bit Version on a Bionic Dog 64bit.....but does not start.
Hardly surprising. Like all Debian-based distros (including Ubuntu, of course) they're multi-user systems. You're expected to run everything as a 'user'.....not as /root. So the permissions will be all wrong.

Or has Fred built them in such a way that you can run them as the /root account? If so.....try that. Of course, trying to run 32-bit in a 64-bit Debian spin, you also need all the 'multilib' stuff from what I vaguely remember (similar to 64-bit Puppy's 32-bit_compat_libs SFS. Which does the same thing.)
backi wrote:Another Question----- in Case i download a "normal" Thunderbird or Pale-moon or Firefox tar.gz --- extract it--- and just copy this tb , plmn or ff script from a portable Version to the Folder of a non portable version and execute this script from there ,
does it act from now on as a Portable Version ?
Is it as easy like it sounds ?
I'm not entirely certain - you'd need to ask Fred about that one - but I think so, yes. The script tells FF, TB or Palemoon to create the profile directory inside the main one, to put the profile in there, and to always run using that profile. And because of the way that Mozilla's offerings have always been confined to a single directory, this is what makes it 'portable'.

But there's precious little need. Fred's Quantum-portable, and my Palemoon and Thunderbird 'portables', are all built using the 'release channel' variants, and will automatically update when updates are available. Even Palemoon now works the same as the Mozilla offering, where updates are concerned.....from within the application itself.

---------------------------------------------------

@ Fred:-
fredx181 wrote:...yes, there's a risk of conflict in including these gtk3 libs, but not sure what's wise..., the best proof is testing it on different Pups...
Mm. See, I'm running this same 'portable' across all 32-bit Pups in the kennels. Tahrpup, Xenialpup, peebee's UPupBB, they're all natively running newer versions of GTK 3.0. Yet the portable TB starts up & runs without so much as a murmur.....in all of 'em. No signs of a conflict.

So I don't quite know what to say..... (*sigh*)


Mike. :wink:

User avatar
fredx181
Posts: 4448
Joined: Wed 11 Dec 2013, 12:37
Location: holland

#19 Post by fredx181 »

Mike Walsh wrote:Mm. See, I'm running this same 'portable' across all 32-bit Pups in the kennels. Tahrpup, Xenialpup, peebee's UPupBB, they're all natively running newer versions of GTK 3.0. Yet the portable TB starts up & runs without so much as a murmur.....in all of 'em. No signs of a conflict.

So I don't quite know what to say..... (*sigh*)
Well, not exactly sure what to say either :wink: , looks like the issue is mostly on 64-bit.
These gtk and gdk libs you added to the 64-bit portable are from which source ? Xenial maybe ?
I tested on Slacko64 just now and didn't run, installing gtk3 from PPM made it work OK (and also needed to rename the extralibs folder) Not sure about the exact package name , search in PPM for gtk+3
On BionicPup64 (from 666philb) it starts, but with warning about dbus, renaming the extralibs directory made this warning disappear.

Perhaps best to add some notes about this gtk3 issue on first post ?
(e.g. in case it doesn't run, install gtk3 from PPM and rename extralibs folder, to avoid conflict)

@backi
Tried to run this Thunderbird 32bit Version on a Bionic Dog 64bit.....but does not start.
Why not use Mike's Thunderbird 64-bit portable on BionicDog 64bit ?
(if it doesn't run, rename the extralibs folder, it contains gtk3 libs, but gtk3 is already installed on BionicDog)
Another Question----- in Case i download a "normal" Thunderbird or Pale-moon or Firefox tar.gz --- extract it--- and just copy this tb , plmn or ff script from a portable Version to the Folder of a non portable version and execute this script from there ,
does it act from now on as a Portable Version ?
Is it as easy like it sounds ?
Yes, just adding the plmn or ff script and running it makes it portable, only thing for the portable Firefox Quantum that I shared: it has the apulse libraries included for providing sound.
Mike Walsh wrote:Or has Fred built them in such a way that you can run them as the /root account?
Sure, BionicDog runs as root by default (and has option to login as normal user)

Fred

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#20 Post by backi »

Hi Fred !Mike !
Why not use Mike's Thunderbird 64-bit portable on BionicDog 64bit ?
Stupid me......completely overlooked!

But still one mystery unsolved ....how to sync Adress-Book / Contacts with newThunderbird.....since gcontactsync add-on no longer works on new Thunderbird.....any Idea how to substitute.....??

Post Reply