This happens on openSUSE 12.2 (32 bit) and KDE. This issue has been discussed in this thread http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/network-internet/477682-thunderbird.html?highlight=thunderbird and it gives a way to get it back up again. What was not discussed was, however, why Thunderbird behaves this way. Is it by design (which IMHO would be bad design) or is it a bug?
Anything I can do except restarting the thing?
Regards, Bent
On 2013-02-13 17:56, BentBagger wrote:
>
> This happens on openSUSE 12.2 (32 bit) and KDE.
Can you describe the issue?
> This issue has been
> discussed in this thread http://tinyurl.com/apzhhv5
That link does not open here.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
The thread title should say it, but briefly the issue is that when I minimize Thunderbird and want to use it again, it does not appear and instead I get the message
Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or restart your system.
That link does not open here.
Well, it does in my browser. Anyway, search in this forum for ‘thunderbird’. It is a thread with the title ‘thunderbird’ dated 25-Aug-2012, 08:47.
Bent
On 02/14/2013 03:16 PM, BentBagger wrote:
>> Can you describe the issue?
> The thread title should say it, but briefly the issue is that when I
> minimize Thunderbird and want to use it again, it does not appear and
the default installed KDE has a ‘Panel’ at the bottom of the screen
which has among other things a clock on the far right, a round green
gecko icon (used to pop up the menu system) and somewhere in between
a section where the running programs (like firefox, thunderbird, etc
etc) ‘drop’ down to as an icon (and probably the program’s name too)
when you minimize them…
and, then when you click the thunderbird icon down there it should
pop right back up where it was…
[but, it you don’t click the icon of the RUNNING thunderbird, but
instead click the same icon you used to LAUNCH Thunderbird, you will
get the system complaint that it is already running…don’t ask me
why…]
so, maybe you accidentally deleted that default ‘Panel’, or maybe you
deleted the section where those icons are supposed to sit, it is
named “Task Manager” and you can add it back, or maybe you just
didn’t know where to look to pop up an already running program…
but, first lets hear if you have that ‘Panel’ without the ‘Task
Manager’ or no Panel at all . . .
–
dd
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
Thanks for the neat explanation. I do have the panel including the Task Manager. I have set it to ‘auto-hide’, which might have confused me.
My situation right now is that I cannot reproduce nor provoke the problem :(. I’m guessing now, but it could have been a ‘transient’ bug that has gone away with the latest update. I do not keep tab on which programs are being updated when an update is performed. I have seen quite a few times that small bugs - perhaps inconveniences is a better word - have gone away simply by waiting for the next update.
So,… if the problem reappears I’ll watch it more carefully.
Thanks to those that have responded to my post.
Bent
I have now been living with this problem for a while so I have watched it more closely. Actually I should change the thread title as it is not correct any longer. The situation has prevailed over the last few updates of Thunderbird.
When I close Thunderbird by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the window (with my setup of the desktop) the GUI disappears and everything appears to be OK. But when I then relaunch Thunderbird, I get this error message:
Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or restart your system.
The remedy I use is simply running this in a console window:
killall thunderbird-bin
after which I have no problems launching Thunderbird.
Why does Thunderbird not ‘die’ completely? and what can I do to get Thunderbird working correctly again?
On 2013-04-07 21:06, BentBagger wrote:
> Why does Thunderbird not ‘die’ completely? and what can I do to get
> Thunderbird working correctly again?
It is difficult to know what it is doing. You might try starting it from
a terminal instead.
I would suggest you try removing this package:
“tracker-miner-thunderbird” if you have it installed. Some people have
problems with it.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
On 04/07/2013 10:08 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
> You might try starting it from a terminal instead.
by that he means to:
open a terminal, x-term, konsole etc
type in and enter
thunderbird
leave that terminal open and it will show (maybe) ‘complaints’ from
Thundebird
when ready to shut down TB, do that with the X in the corner, as usual
if TB throws error messages during shutdown they will be shown in
the open terminal window…
and, if you look at the output in the terminal and can’t figure
out/fix the problem, copy and paste the output back to this thread
using “code” tags as described here:
http://goo.gl/i3wnrhttp://goo.gl/i3wnr
depending on how much output there is, you may need to instead paste
the output into http://susepaste.org/ and return the URL back to this
thread…
please copy and paste the entire INPUT and output, including the
prompt, like
denverd@linux-os114:~> thunderbird
denverd@linux-os114:~>
(but, we hope your’s has some of helpful info before the blank prompt
returns…)
I tried, and I did not even get the prompt back when I hit the ‘X’. Thunderbird-bin, which is exec’d from thunderbird, keeps running:
bent@yosie:~> ps -ef |grep thun
bent 6345 6332 13 20:27 pts/1 00:00:08 /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin
bent 6420 6399 0 20:28 pts/2 00:00:00 grep --color=auto thun
bent@yosie:~>
A Ctrl-C of course made it go away.
I would suggest you try removing this package:
“tracker-miner-thunderbird” if you have it installed. Some people have
problems with it.
I have removed the package and it looks like it helps. I did 7 or 8 restarts and Thunderbird came up nicely in all cases. We shall see. I’ll watch it for a couple of days and then report back here.
Just a thought: I have my mail on a IMAP server (Dovecot). Could “tracker-miner-thunderbird” have problems with that?
In any case thanks for the help.
Bent
On 2013-04-08 21:06, BentBagger wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2545559 Wrote:
> I have removed the package and it looks like it helps. I did 7 or 8
> restarts and Thunderbird came up nicely in all cases. We shall see. I’ll
> watch it for a couple of days and then report back here.
>
> Just a thought: I have my mail on a IMAP server (Dovecot). Could
> “tracker-miner-thunderbird” have problems with that?
(me too)
It might.
It is probably trying to index the entire contents, so it is busy.
I had the same problem. Which is a pity, because sometimes I do want to
find a particular email that I have absolutely no idea where it is, so
“tracker” seems a good idea 
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Thunderbird has come up nicely every time since I deleted the package “tracker-miner-thunderbird” so I believe it is safe to say that it was said package that caused the problem.
I’ll see if I can mark this thread as ‘solved’
Thanks again for your help.
Bent