Beep for new mail on Thunderbird & Linux

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Thunderbird
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Splat-NJ
Posts: 117
Joined: August 18th, 2005, 8:15 am

Beep for new mail on Thunderbird & Linux

Post by Splat-NJ »

Folks, I'm running Ubuntu and Thunderbird. All I wanted was a PC-emitted "beep!" when new emails arrived since I don't always have my speakers on. There is a little program by Johnath that allows you to get your "beep!" back and also customize it. You can get the latest version from his site http://johnath.com/beep/ or sudo apt-get install beep which isn't the lastest version but works for me. This method gets Thunderbird to beep upon new mail arrivals on Linux.

Install Mailbox Alert . Once installed you then need to set the alert to the beep command. Under "Tools" in Thunderbird select "Mailbox Alert Preferences". Select the "Execute a command" option and enter "/usr/bin/beep"(or wherever you installed "beep" to). If you have child(sub) folders that you want to be alerted when new mail arrives in them select the "Alert for child folders (if they ....." option. Finally, hit the "Test these settings" button to test the beep. If you get a beep you know it's working so hit the OK button and you're good to go.
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Neville
Posts: 715
Joined: April 7th, 2008, 1:14 am

Re: Beep for new mail on Thunderbird & Linux

Post by Neville »

Looks good but does anybody know why TB fails to beep on Ubuntu without this gismo?
Splat-NJ
Posts: 117
Joined: August 18th, 2005, 8:15 am

Re: Beep for new mail on Thunderbird & Linux

Post by Splat-NJ »

A late reply but yes, I read about that somewhere. Supposedly the system beep was shut off by the Ubuntu team. It works before login and after logout.
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rsx11m
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Joined: May 3rd, 2007, 7:40 am
Location: US

Re: Beep for new mail on Thunderbird & Linux

Post by rsx11m »

I don't think this is restricted to Ubuntu, I've seen the same issue with openSUSE. Using the system beep for new mail stopped after some update, and even if the KDE beep is set to use the system beep rather than a sound it would still use the sound card rather than the build-in speaker.
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