My thunderbird has stopped working

English Applications
#1

Hi,

My Thunderbird has stopped working. I see a white empty left and right panel. Both empty. Many
menues do not work. Log out, log in of the session doesn’t help.

However, it works alright, it seems, if I use -safe-mode.

I do not see errors in an xterm, except:

cer@Elessar:~> thunderbird -safe-mode
*** nss-shared-helper: Shared database disabled (set NSS_USE_SHARED_DB to enable).

which I think is not related.

How do I repair it?

Do not tell me to erase all, that will not do.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#2

Hi
What about if you create a test user? Does it work OK?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.3 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.34-12-default
up 3 days 11:46, 5 users, load average: 0.05, 0.11, 0.09
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 256.44

#3

On 2010-08-07 04:26, malcolmlewis wrote:

> Hi
> What about if you create a test user? Does it work OK?

It might, I’ll try tomorrow. But that one will have no accounts.

Another idea they told me is to disable all addons, then re-add one by one. I see I have a few I
have not added myself, they came with he system, I think. What do I want a plugin to see videos in
email for, I wonder?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#4

Carlos E. R. wrote:
> However, it works alright, it seems, if I use -safe-mode.

i’d first make a new user and set up some accounts (you can tell
t-bird to leave all mail on the server (so you can collect it in your
regular user later, when t-bird behaves))

if that doesn’t work i’d compare the kernel parameters for the safe
boot, to those normally booted (see both in /boot/grub/menu.lst)…

i guess if you were to change the parameter in your normal boot to
replace vga=[whatever] with vga=normal you might find the problem is
as i suspect, graphics related…

if not, i think i’d try using YaST to uninstall and then reinstall
t-bird…if i’m not mistaken that will not touch your stored mail,
settings, etc…

i see you use 11.2, which (i think) doesn’t by default have an
xorg.conf, if yours doesn’t then maybe one day the boot magic picked
the wrong video driver to load ???

good luck!

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

#5

On 2010-08-07 08:37, DenverD wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> However, it works alright, it seems, if I use -safe-mode.
>
> i’d first make a new user and set up some accounts (you can tell
> t-bird to leave all mail on the server (so you can collect it in your
> regular user later, when t-bird behaves))

Works fine, as I knew. Just for checking.

> if that doesn’t work i’d compare the kernel parameters for the safe
> boot, to those normally booted (see both in /boot/grub/menu.lst)…

I haven’t booted in…48 days. Not that.

> i guess if you were to change the parameter in your normal boot to
> replace vga=[whatever] with vga=normal you might find the problem is
> as i suspect, graphics related…

Not here :slight_smile:

> if not, i think i’d try using YaST to uninstall and then reinstall
> t-bird…if i’m not mistaken that will not touch your stored mail,
> settings, etc…

Naaa… a second user works fine, it is some configuration thing. I suspect a borked sqlite database.

>
> i see you use 11.2, which (i think) doesn’t by default have an
> xorg.conf, if yours doesn’t then maybe one day the boot magic picked
> the wrong video driver to load ???

No, because I had not logged out.

I exited th. to cpy a folder, entered again, failed. But the X session was the same one.

No, this thing is related exclusively to the Th configuration.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#6

On 2010-08-07 05:44, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2010-08-07 04:26, malcolmlewis wrote:
>
>> Hi
>> What about if you create a test user? Does it work OK?
>
> It might, I’ll try tomorrow. But that one will have no accounts.

Ok, tried, added one account, works fine.

>
> Another idea they told me is to disable all addons, then re-add one by one. I see I have a few I
> have not added myself, they came with he system, I think. What do I want a plugin to see videos in
> email for, I wonder?

Did not work. All plugins dissabled, no good.

I suspect something in the folder structure or sqlite databases.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#7

On 2010-08-07 14:06, Carlos E. R. wrote:

(summary)
left panel is dead, the one that displays the folders.
It works in safe mode
It works as new user.

New info:

The error console shows:

Discovering folders for account failed with exception: [Exception… “Component returned failure
code: 0x80520008 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS) [nsIMsgFolder.subFolders]” nsresult: “0x80520008
(NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS)” location: “JS frame :: chrome://messenger/content/folderPane.js ::
ftv__mg_all :: line 1208” data: no]

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception… “Component returned failure code: 0x80520008
(NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS) [nsIMsgFolder.subFolders]” nsresult: “0x80520008
(NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS)” location: “JS frame :: chrome://messenger/content/folderPane.js ::
anonymous :: line 1774” data: no]

I think that is the problem.

Which file already exists?

How do I solve it?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#8

On 2010-08-07 03:54, Carlos E. R. wrote:

(summary)
left panel is dead, the one that displays the folders.
It works in safe mode
It works as new user.

The error console shows:

Discovering folders for account failed with exception: [Exception… “Component returned failure
code: 0x80520008 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS) [nsIMsgFolder.subFolders]” nsresult: “0x80520008
(NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS)” location: “JS frame :: chrome://messenger/content/folderPane.js ::
ftv__mg_all :: line 1208” data: no]

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception… “Component returned failure code: 0x80520008
(NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS) [nsIMsgFolder.subFolders]” nsresult: “0x80520008
(NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS)” location: “JS frame :: chrome://messenger/content/folderPane.js ::
anonymous :: line 1774” data: no]

How do I solve it?

On the oS maillist they pointed me to the forums at
<http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=31>

I started by reading FAQs there. One said how to backup thunderbird, but it is basically saving the
entire tree somewhere, which would reproduce the error.

<http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=366405>
How to get help (FAQ)

<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup>
Profile backup

From there I found this:

<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird>
Profile folder - Thunderbird

…specifically the section “Files and folders in the profile”, from which I learned of some files
that could be deleted in case of problems. I deleted all those (after I copied the entire thing).
Unfortunately I did not make a list of the exact files I deleted, I think these:

  • downloads.rdf Download history. Can be deleted to resolve slow downloads or program hangs

Didn’t have it.

  • extensions.rdf Installed extension information. It can be deleted to remove “ghost” entries
    from the extension list and to resolve various other issues.

  • localstore.rdf Toolbar and window layout size/position settings. It can be deleted to resolve
    various issues.

  • mimeTypes.rdf Action to perform when downloading certain types of files. Can be deleted to
    reset download actions.

  • panacea.dat Mail folder cache. Deleting it sometimes helps get rid of Phantom folders

And it worked. :-)))

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))