Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 7.6

Chapter 38. Other X-based Programs

Thunderbird-31.1.1

Introduction to Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a stand-alone mail/news client based on the Mozilla codebase. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to enable it to display and compose HTML emails.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.6 platform.

Package Information

Thunderbird Dependencies

Required

alsa-lib-1.0.28, GTK+-2.24.24, Zip-3.0 and UnZip-6.0

Recommended

libevent-2.0.21, libvpx-1.3.0, NSPR-4.10.7, NSS-3.17, SQLite-3.8.6 and yasm-1.3.0

[Note]

Note

If you don't install recommended dependencies, then internal copies of those packages will be used. They might be tested to work, but they can be out of date or contain security holes.

[Note]

Note

With Thunderbird-31.0 and later versions, you must have installed Openssl before Python 2, or the build system will quickly fail with output including "ImportError: cannot import name HTTPSHandler". If you are in any doubt about this (e.g. upgrading from an older version of Thunderbird), check if /usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/_ssl.so exists. If it does not, reinstall Python-2.7.8 (after installing OpenSSL-1.0.1i - the latest version of any currently maintained version of Openssl should be satisfactory if already installed - if that package has not already been installed).

Optional

cURL-7.37.1, Cyrus SASL-2.1.26, dbus-glib-0.102, Doxygen-1.8.8, gst-plugins-good-0.10.31 and gst-ffmpeg-0.10.13, libnotify-0.7.6, OpenJDK-1.7.0.65/IcedTea-2.5.2, PulseAudio-5.0, startup-notification-0.12, Wget-1.15, Wireless Tools-29, and Hunspell

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/Thunderbird

Installation of Thunderbird

The configuration of Thunderbird is accomplished by creating a mozconfig file containing the desired configuration options. A default mozconfig is created below. To see the entire list of available configuration options (and a brief description of each), issue mozilla/configure --help. Create the file with the following command: 

cat > mozconfig << "EOF"
# If you have a multicore machine, the build may be faster if using parallel
# jobs. The build system automatically adds -jN to the "make" flags, where N
# is the number of CPU cores. The option below is therefore useless, unless
# you want to use a smaller number of jobs:
#mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j1"

# If you have installed DBus-Glib comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-dbus

# If you have installed wireless-tools comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi

# If you have installed libnotify comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-libnotify

# GStreamer is necessary for H.264 video playback in HTML5 Video Player;
# to be enabled, also remember to set "media.gstreamer.enabled" to "true"
# in about:config. If you have installed GStreamer comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-gstreamer

# Uncomment these lines if you have installed optional dependencies:
#ac_add_options --enable-system-hunspell
#ac_add_options --enable-startup-notification

# Comment out following option if you have PulseAudio installed
ac_add_options --disable-pulseaudio

# If you have not installed Yasm then uncomment this line:
#ac_add_options --disable-webm

# If you want to compile the Mozilla Calendar, uncomment this line:
#ac_add_options --enable-calendar

# Comment out following options if you have not installed
# recommended dependencies:
ac_add_options --enable-system-sqlite
ac_add_options --with-system-libevent
ac_add_options --with-system-libvpx
ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
ac_add_options --with-system-nss
ac_add_options --with-system-icu

# The BLFS editors recommend not changing anything below this line:
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr

ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-tests

ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --enable-strip
ac_add_options --enable-install-strip

ac_add_options --enable-gio
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
ac_add_options --enable-safe-browsing
ac_add_options --enable-url-classifier

ac_add_options --enable-system-cairo
ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --enable-system-pixman

ac_add_options --with-pthreads

ac_add_options --with-system-bz2
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib

mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/thunderbuild
EOF

First, a bug needs to be fixed. Notice that thunderbuild needs to match the value used in mozconfig (above) for the object directory (MOZ_OBJDIR): 

mkdir -vp mozilla/thunderbuild

Compile Thunderbird by issuing the following commands:

[Note]

Note

If you are compiling Thunderbird in chroot, prepend SHELL=/bin/sh to the make command below. 

make -f client.mk

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install Thunderbird by running the following commands as the root user: 

make -f client.mk install INSTALL_SDK=

The above instruction just installs the parts you need to run Thunderbird. Alternatively, if you want to install the full Thunderbird development environment, run the following command as the root user: 

make -C thunderbuild install

Command Explanations

mkdir -vp mozilla/thunderbuild: fixes a build failure of Makefile at the beginning of build, where a file cannot be found.

make -f client.mk: Mozilla products are packaged to allow the use of a configuration file which can be used to pass the configuration settings to the configure command. make uses the client.mk file to get initial configuration and setup parameters.

Configuring Thunderbird

Configuration Information

If your Window or Desktop Manager does not allow you to configure a default browser, you can add a configuration parameter to Thunderbird so that a browser will start when when you click on an Internet/intranet/local URL. The procedure to check or modify any of the configuration parameters is quite simple and the instructions here can be used to view or modify any of the parameters.

First, open the configuration dialog by opening the “Edit” drop-down menu. Choose “Preferences” and then click on the “Advanced” icon on the top menu bar. Choose the “General” tab and click on the “Config Editor” button. This will display a list of the configuration preferences and information related to each one. You can use the “Filter:” bar to enter search criteria and narrow down the listed items. Changing a preference can be done using two methods. One, if the preference has a boolean value (True/False), simply double-click on the preference to toggle the value and two, for other preferences simply right-click on the desired line, choose “Modify” from the menu and change the value. Creating new preference items is accomplished in the same way, except choose “New” from the menu and provide the desired data into the fields when prompted.

The configuration preference item you need to check so that Thunderbird uses a specified browser is the network.protocol-handler.app.http which should be set to the path of the desired browser, e.g. /usr/bin/firefox.

[Tip]

Tip

There is a multitude of configuration parameters you can tweak to customize Thunderbird. A very extensive, but not so up-to-date list of these parameters can be found at http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html.

If you use a desktop environment like GNOME or KDE you may wish to create a thunderbird.desktop file so that Thunderbird appears in the panel's menus. If you didn't enable startup-notification in your mozconfig then change the StartupNotify line to false. Run the following commands as the root user: 

mkdir -pv /usr/share/applications &&
mkdir -pv /usr/share/pixmaps &&

cat > /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop << "EOF" &&
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Thunderbird Mail
Comment=Send and receive mail with Thunderbird
GenericName=Mail Client
Exec=thunderbird %u
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=thunderbird
Categories=Application;Network;Email;
MimeType=application/xhtml+xml;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;x-scheme-handler/mailto;
StartupNotify=true
EOF

ln -sfv /usr/lib/thunderbird-31.1.1/chrome/icons/default/default256.png \
        /usr/share/pixmaps/thunderbird.png

Contents

Installed Program: thunderbird
Installed Libraries: None
Installed Directory: /usr/lib/thunderbird-31.1.1

Short Descriptions

thunderbird

is Mozilla's email and newsgroup client.

Last updated on 2014-09-22 01:43:56 -0700