OpenSuse 12.1 After answering yes to Thunderbird update prompt, Thunderbird won't start

[slcro]

(No response from Thunderbird's support forum after few days, so posting here, hope this is OK) :-)

Not long after recent upgrade of my OpenSuSE from 11.4 to 12.1, Thunderbird recently prompted and asked if I wanted to update Thunderbird. I said yes and clicked the Restart Thunderbird button. (I now have the hunch that I shouldn't have done this, and should have just waited for updates to come from OpenSuSE :-| ) But anyway, ...

Got message that Thunderbird would re-start after applying my update(s). Never came up. Tried restarting from my desktop icon. Nothing. Tried starting ("thunderbird") from command prompt. Got "cannot find mozilla runtime directory. Exiting." Placed myself in /usr/local/bin (a location I got from "locate thunderbird" command) and did ./thunderbird . Same error message. All my files in ~/.thunderbird seemed to still be there. YaST2 Software Management told me that a 14.0 Thunderbird was available, but did not show it as being installed. Made a backup copy of my ~/.thunderbird directory. (Re-?)installed the available Thunderbird 14.0 from SuSE YaST2 Software Management. No improvement, still "cannot find mozilla runtime directory. Exiting." when doing ./thunderbird from /usr/local/bin, and no response from desktop icon.

Firefox starts OK. Would like to get Thunderbird working again, with my saved e-mail (don't care how I have to start it up). Is there a way that I can 1) determine just what this "mozilla runtime directory" is, that Thunderbird is looking for, and 2) make Thunderbird able to find it? Thanks in advance! :-)

[nrickert]

(I now have the hunch that I shouldn't have done this, and should have just waited for updates to come from OpenSuSE :-| )

I always wait for the opensuse update to come through. At present 14.0 seems to be working fine, but I haven't done any hard testing since that is not my normal email client.

If I were in your situation, I would try uninstalling Thunderbird (from Yast software management), and then reinstalling it.

I had not noticed that reference to "/usr/local/bin". You probably need to delete everything Thunderbird related from "/usr/local" and subdirectories of there.

[martin_helm]

Am 06.08.2012 21:46, schrieb slcro:
> /usr/local/bin (a location I got from "locate thunderbird" command)
This is not the TB from openSUSE, it is something you installed outside
the package system. Remove that completely (I do not know howto properly
uninstall you need to remeber how you installed it) and install TB with
yast.

--
PC: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10

[martin_helm]

Am 06.08.2012 22:46, schrieb nrickert:
> If I were in your situation, I would try uninstalling Thunderbird (from
> Yast software management), and then reinstalling it.
That will not help since the OPs Thunderbird is in /usr/local and will
not in any way be affected by whatever you do in yast.

--
PC: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10

[slcro]

In the process of determining what I need to "clean up", ran another locate command on thunderbird, and now found (maybe didn't notice it before?) thunderbird also in /usr/bin . Changed shortcut to execute thunderbird as /usr/bin/thunderbird with my ~/.thunderbird as my work path (maybe not needed? old habit from DOS/Windows?), and now everything comes up. Took a minute to go through all my inbox emails (indexing?), but now all runs, 14.0, even with new Lightning for calendar.

Is this /usr/bin/thunderbird the "good" one from when I did the YaST2 install?

I will read through these replies again, and I know that I have some cleanup to do here (especially because I know that a new version might be coming through from OpenSuSE sooner or later). Thanks for help! :-)

Am 06.08.2012 22:46, schrieb nrickert:
> If I were in your situation, I would try uninstalling Thunderbird (from
> Yast software management), and then reinstalling it.
That will not help since the OPs Thunderbird is in /usr/local and will
not in any way be affected by whatever you do in yast.

--
PC: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10

[dd@home.dk]

On 08/06/2012 10:55 PM, Martin Helm wrote:
> Remove that completely (I do not know howto properly
> uninstall you need to remeber how you installed it)

alternatively, just ignore it--because the way you are executing TB now
is using the correctly placed and working TB (using the correctly places
and working config files, etc)..

then the next time you move to a new version of openSUSE just do a clean
install (after saving /home) and all that old TB crud will be history..


> and install TB with yast.

that is done (if i understand his post after your last...

so, imho i think the OP is "good to go"....meaning:

- the current version is working ok
- when the next version comes DO NOT click any buttons in TB to
update....just WAIT for the code to flow via YaST Online Update..
- when moving to 12.2 (or whatever) do a clean install (saving /home)

sound good to you, Martin? (if not, i bow to your expertise..)

--
dd

[martin_helm]

Am 07.08.2012 07:50, schrieb dd@home.dk:
> sound good to you, Martin? (if not, i bow to your expertise..)

The link makes it work of course, I would at least as a safety measure
delete the not working executable /usr/local/bin/thunderbird which makes
it in the future impossible to start it by accident

--
PC: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10

[robin_listas]

On 2012-08-07 04:36, slcro wrote:
>
> In the process of determining what I need to "clean up", ran another
> locate command on thunderbird, and now found (maybe didn't notice it
> before?) thunderbird also in /usr/bin . Changed shortcut to execute
> thunderbird as /usr/bin/thunderbird with my ~/.thunderbird as my work
> path (maybe not needed? old habit from DOS/Windows?),

No, not needed.

> and now everything
> comes up. Took a minute to go through all my inbox emails (indexing?),
> but now all runs, 14.0, even with new Lightning for calendar.
>
> Is this /usr/bin/thunderbird the "good" one from when I did the YaST2
> install?

Yep.

Now you have to delete the local install, and if you receive a prompt from Th to update itself,
refuse. Use the system install, it is easier.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 "Asparagus" GM (bombadillo))