I struggled for a while with jpg image files not properly opening with the “System Handler” in Thunderbird. Despite changing the file association setting back to “Always ask” to reset it, the wrong application opened the images.
Usually one would just select another application in the list of applications but since it is a Flatpak the sandbox restricts access and none where displaying.
Fiddling around I deleted the second order in the chain where Thunderbird Flatpak searches for the right application to open (after the handlers.json):
After a restart the “System Handler” finally opened up the correct application as it was using the third level in the lookup chain, the XDG Desktop Portal, which gracefully forwarded the request to Loupe in this case.
Crashes when trying to attach a file or save an attachment:
[Parent 3, Main Thread] WARNING: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.: 'glib warning', file /builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:201
(net.thunderbird.Thunderbird:3): Gtk-WARNING **: 12:25:17.580: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
**
Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /run/host/share/icons/breeze/status/16/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.KSAZE3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /run/host/share/icons/breeze/status/16/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.KSAZE3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Redirecting call to abort() to mozalloc_abort
Exiting due to channel error.
Segmentation fault (core dumped) thunderbird
[📦 net.thunderbird.Thunderbird ~]$ exit
exit
There is already a Bugzilla entry but until it is solved you can simply remove the TMPDIR environment variable:
Using Fedora Kinoite Thunderbird comes in a Flatpak. This caused me issues with mailto links in Firefox not opening Thunderbird’s new email window.
Usually just setting Thunderbird as the default email client inside Thunderbird’s settings or KDE’s default applications would have worked. Even selecting Thunderbird inside the Firefox file handler applications settings would have done the job. However mailto links did nothing but open up the application selector in Firefox which did not work.
The first two places were already set correctly (in Thunderbird and KDE) so not much more to do there. As I cannot directly select Thunderbird’s binary since it is a Flatpak, I tried to get Firefox to open the Flatpak binary instead and somehow customise the command being run.
There was just no way to customise the command through its interface, unless I fiddled with handlers.json directly in my Firefox profile directory. I tried a few combinations and no dice. I was also still reluctant to believe that all other users would go through this mess just to get mailto links working which is such a basic feature.
The most annoying part was that XDG actually returned Thunderbird as the default handler for mailto links:
But checking my ~/.config/mimeapps.list file revealed that there was no mailto handler defined. Adding the corresponding entries finally fixed the issue:
Glad that I got it working but still not satisfied that this was really the way to go, so I decided to start from scratch.
I went back to KDE’s System Settings>Apps & Windows>Default Applications>Email client. Despite having Thunderbird already selected I went and selected Other… instead. Here I could select Thunderbird again but interestingly there were more options:
You will notice in my screen-shot the check-box stating “Remember application association for all files of type “x-scheme-handler/mailto“. This check-box once checked actually updates the same ~/.config/mimeapps.list file with the previous entries I mentioned earlier.
So apparently this is an option which is not enabled by default when just selecting Thunderbird in the default applications list. Why not having mailto links working by default in KDE is a conundrum.
I am sure there are edge cases not wanting mailto links to open the default email client, but I would assume the vast majority of users expect this behaviour of the default email client. What is the point otherwise of selecting a default application?
Just a little annoying issue that has buggered me for many months without any solution in the updates.
When launching the latest Fedora version of Thunderbird Flatpak (128.6.0esr), it does not display its usual stylised blue swallow icon, but instead the generic yellow “W” icon of Wayland.
This system runs Fedora Kinoite so the bug probable does not affect a RPM installation of Thunderbird. Additionally, there is also a Flatpak version of Thunderbird in Flathub which I have not tested whether this bug is present or not.
This issue appears to be due to how the Thunderbird Flatpak is packaged. Specifically, the Fedora provided Flatpak is not setting the expected desktop file metadata when it launches under Wayland. As a result, KDE Plasma falls back to the generic “W” icon for the running window, even though the menu and pinned icon are correct.
There is a specific commit to the underlying Flatpak container.yaml which may be responsible for this bug. The changing of the name string from “org.mozilla.thunderbird” to “net.thunderbird.Thunderbird“. This hint is also what is used to work around the bug:
Start by opening Thunderbird
Press Alt+F3
Select More Actions > Configure Special Application Settings
Add a new property called Desktop file name
Select “Force” in the property drop-down
Change the property value to “org.mozilla.Thunderbird“
Click “OK“
Now the taskbar icon should be back to the same as the one in the menu, the correct Thunderbird blue swallow icon, with no sight of the wrong yellow Wayland “W” icon.
I have been using Gmail accounts inside Thunderbird for some time and every now and then I received those annonying error messages stating that the username or password was invalid. This was somehow a conundrum as the passwords were saved within the Thunderbird profile and had not changed.
Looking up the issue today I came across both the problem, the trigger, and the solution. I realised that Gmail does not let you check for mailbox changes more often than every 10 minutes. Thunderbird was set to check for new mail every 6 minutes which seems to have triggered the account to be locked out. First when the Captcha had been passed the email account was again available via IMAP.
