I have read several good reports about betterbird so thought I would dip my toe in and try it.
I downloaded the Linux version and extracted it, hoping there would be some installation instructions but no. So, if I wish to have this app install, be available on my desktop and work with my existing T’bird profile how do I do this. I do not want the app in my Downloads folder so where do I put it and have a logo available as I do for T’bird.
I also saw there is a flatpack version and having a few moments available I thought I would try this. I do not have flatpack repo installed so thought I would follow the openSUSE instructions to install this. These are:-
Flatpak is available in the default repositories of all currently maintained openSUSE Leap and openSUSE Tumbleweed versions.
If you prefer a graphical installation, you can install Flatpak using a "1-click installer" from software.opensuse.org. If your distribution version is not shown by default, click Show flatpak for other distributions first and then select from the list.
Alternatively, install Flatpak from the command line using Zypper:
This is what I get:-
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> sudo zypper install flatpack
[sudo] password for root:
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
'flatpack' not found in package names. Trying capabilities.
No provider of 'flatpack' found.
Resolving package dependencies...
Nothing to do.
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~>
Perhaps a repo is missing and the 1-click installer was not there so have had no luck yet and am asking for help please.
I download the rpm from betterbird and expand it in /opt as root.
If you use it - you better make a copy of the .thunderbird directory before you use betterbird or you cannot go back.
Have read up a bit more and am not going to use flatpak for betterbird.
I do have problems with the installation of the downloaded app. My problem, as with many linux questions, is that there are so many options available. larryr has suggested I use /opt as root. others suggest a Betterbird directory in my home as in ~/Betterbird. Other options are in /usr/local or other /usr subdirectories.
The download version has been built using Mint but as shows as Arch.
Isn’t it time somebody wrote an installation script for openSUSE which ensures dependencies are met and works as well as possible with existing T’Bird profile.
Some feedback on betterbird:-
I took larryr’s advice and installed in /opt, set up a betterbird.desktop app in my /usr/share/applications directory and logo is in Application launcher>Internet all as hoped.
I set the -p option on the Exec command but this failed when run from gui and I made mistake of creating a new profile which did not connect to IMAP server. Started over and ran from cli and was able to select my T’bird profile. So far so good. So good in fact that I have yet to notice the difference from T’bird I was using earlier. QuickFilters and QuickFolders are installed and work so will close this thread with a thanks to all.
More feedback if anybody is interested.
As noted above my BB is on /opt.
I had real problems managing the profiles and have had to start BB manually using -p option so I can select the right profile each time. I have had to edit the ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini to set the correct Default line because this was not being changed even though this was intended.
Having sorted out the startup I looked into updating because there is no BB repo for TW.
The script provided by BB does the update by reinstalling and this script unfortunately is written for local user so I had to edit it to have it work on my system. The edited script work well now but it overwrites the desktop script so beware if you wish to have BB running with -p option further changes will be required. As it is for me, now I have the startup working correctly my only remaining task is writing a small cron script to run the update as root.
If I have any new issues I shall start a new post.