Thunderbird won't open browser

Hunnicutt · Post by **Hunnicutt** » March 1st, 2005, 11:17 am

OK this may sound silly to some but I am very new to Linux, Thunderbird and Firefox. I do know I would like to use this setup but I am unable to get it working. Can one of you help me out. My problem is one I don't know where to put the user.js two I am not sure if my scripts are right...

my path to my Thunderbird is /home/rramsey/thunderbird/thunderbird
and to my Firefox is /home/rramsey/firefox-installer

I did all as you said but it still opens the Gnom browser (which stinks).

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

Hunnicutt · Post by **Hunnicutt** » March 1st, 2005, 1:09 pm

beta wrote:Hi, I've got an alternative solution that seems to be easier...

THUNDERBIRD: Open with firefox an URL contained in an email

1.Go to the .thunderbird directory in your home directory (it is usually an hidden directory like /home/user/.thunderbird)
2.Go your profile directory (with a random-generated name, like this Xbcgev.default). To be sure u're in the correct directory check if a file named "prefs.js" exists.
3. Create an empty file called "user.js". (If it already exists skip this passage)
4. Open "user.js" and write this line (if the file already exists append the line at the end):
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox/firefox");

/usr/bin/firefox/firefox is obviously the path to execute firefox

5.That's all

FIREFOX: open thunderbird when clicking on a "mailto:" link

1.Go to the .mozilla directory in your home directory (it is usually a hidden directory like /home/user/.mozilla or /home/user/.mozilla/firefox)
2.Go your firefox profile directory (with a random-generated name, like this Xbcgev.default). To be sure u're in the correct directory check if a file named "prefs.js" exists.
3. Create an empty file called "user.js". (If it already exists skip this passage)
4. Open "user.js" and write this line (if the file already exists append the line at the end):

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto","/usr/bin/thunderbird/thunderbird");

/usr/bin/thunderird/thunderbird is the path to execute thunderbird

5.That's all

It's really simple and for me it worked perfectly (suse 9.1 personal).
Hope this post could help who, like me, had been googling for hours to find a solution to these problems Let me know.
Greets

Disreguard my last post, I tried this process and it was a jem! WOrked like a charm! Rock on to all of you guys who took the time to get this to work for all of us!

RobF · Post by **RobF** » March 3rd, 2005, 4:22 pm

silverbirch wrote:Couple of questions/problems. Found the files okay to know the paths to enter.
Do I enter the script with lines between each line as presented in the post, or no lines?
Is each character immediately adjacent to the next? i.e. are there any spaces, say between 'if' and $?

Kia ora!

If Firefox and Thunderbird are in your home directory, then there is no need to use the console, logging in as root and/or use vi. You can just use the default text editor (e.g. KDE's Kwrite) and copy the code from my post and paste it in the appropriate files.

BTW, rather than silverbirch why not silverfern, the All Black's icon? Or is that tapu?

Cheers, Robert

ruipb · Post by **ruipb** » March 12th, 2005, 5:52 pm

Thks Hunnicutt ,

it worked for me, running KDE 3.3.2 on a Debian (testing)

cajunlibra · Post by **cajunlibra** » July 4th, 2005, 9:04 am

can anyone give me the scripts that would work on Ubuntu v5.04? I'm glad I found this thread.

Thanks in advance

cajunlibra · Post by **cajunlibra** » July 4th, 2005, 9:32 am

I've tried the little "user.js" trick and it still didnt' work. ubuntu still wants to open a new instance of Tbird eventhough it's already open. My user.js is: user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto","/usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird");
for firefox and:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/mozilla-firefox");
for t-bird.
My url issue is that Tbird will open a new Tab for a clicked link ONLY if FF is already open. It was doing this before adding the line to user.js

F-0_ICE · Post by **F-0_ICE** » September 7th, 2005, 4:39 pm

i have been looking all over the forums for the answer to this problem. and adding
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox");
worked great. i just wanted to give my thanks.

wmstrome · Post by **wmstrome** » January 2nd, 2006, 12:41 pm

I would also like to thank beta for the simple trick:
4. Open "user.js" and write this line (if the file already exists append the line at the end):

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox/firefox");
where the path in the second part is obviously to the actual location of firefox (in my case: opt/firefox/firefox).

To get this to work, I had to replace the lines I had already tried pointing to the openlink.sh script which I had added earlier.

I had gotten things to work OK with Thunderbird 1.0.6 and an older version of Firefox. However, I had to reinstall my system, and after doing so, I installed the latest versions with a lot of trouble, mostly because of stupid (but difficult to spot) errors in copying scripts, files, etc.), but hadn't gotten it going on the new install even after several attempts and lots of time wasted.

I would like to repeat the lament of so many people who have posted to this forum:

WHY DON"T THE DEVELOPERS MAKE IT A VERY HIGH PRIORITY TO ENSURE SIMPLE AUTOMATIC LAUNCHING OF FIREFOX WITH THUNDERBIRD AND VICE VERSA??

This has been my biggest complaint with these stand-alone products. Except for this failing, I do like them both.

wmstrome · Post by **wmstrome** » January 2nd, 2006, 12:42 pm

wmstrome wrote:I would also like to thank beta for the simple trick:
4. Open "user.js" and write this line (if the file already exists append the line at the end):

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox/firefox");
where the path in the second part is obviously to the actual location of firefox (in my case: opt/firefox/firefox).

To get this to work, I had to replace the lines I had already tried pointing to the openlink.sh script which I had added earlier.

I had gotten things to work OK with Thunderbird 1.0.6 and an older version of Firefox. However, I had to reinstall my system, and after doing so, I installed the latest versions with a lot of trouble, mostly because of stupid (but difficult to spot) errors in copying scripts, files, etc.), but hadn't gotten it going on the new install even after several attempts and lots of time wasted.

I would like to repeat the lament of so many people who have posted to this forum:

WHY DON"T THE DEVELOPERS MAKE IT A VERY HIGH PRIORITY TO ENSURE SIMPLE AUTOMATIC LAUNCHING OF FIREFOX WITH THUNDERBIRD AND VICE VERSA??

This has been my biggest complaint with these stand-alone products. Except for this failing, I do like them both.

I should have mentioned that I am using Mandriva 2006 free edition.

Freee!! · Post by **Freee!!** » January 2nd, 2006, 12:47 pm

Next time please use the [Edit] button.

Äkiidoll · Post by **Äkiidoll** » January 2nd, 2006, 7:35 pm

Thunderbird & Firefox play togther on Linux

hamaryns · Post by **hamaryns** » January 17th, 2007, 3:34 am

Hi all,

I have been struggling with this same problem for a while, and thought I’d share my solution with you all. It is a summary of all of the above, useful for those who don’t want to browse through all the different versions of the scripts.

First: the solution with about: config and setting network.protocol-handler.external.<protocol> works (see <http>), but only for links *from* Thunderbird or Firefox. It will not work if one wants to open links from e.g. an OpenOffice document. For this to work, one has to use the script way.

For this create two scripts:

1) firefox-starter
<code>
#!/bin/sh
#
# This script allows external apps to open new URLs in Firefox
# or open a new instance of Firefox if it isn't already started
#
/usr/local/firefox/firefox -a firefox -remote "openURL($@,new-tab)" ||
exec /usr/local/firefox/firefox "$@";
</code>
2) thunderbird-starter
<code>
#!/bin/sh
#
# This script allows external apps to open new mailto:URLs in Thunderbird
# or open a new message window if it isn't already started
#
/usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird -a thunderbird -remote "mailto($@)" ||
exec /usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird -compose "$@";
</code>
then *make them executable*, and point all programs to use these scripts for browser or mail reader, respectively. This can easily be done in Gnome, under Applications -> Tools -> Desktop -> Default Applications. KDE users will have to start a Gnome session to do this, after new login it will work under KDE too. (There might be another way, I am not aware of it, see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Default_browser#Linux)

Hope this helps some people, H.

sebomax · Post by **sebomax** » March 14th, 2008, 1:57 am

I recently moved thunderbird from xp to vista. I have successfully migrated all my mails and acounts but since I moved all my files, no url will open in any browser when I clic on link in a message.

I read that I could configure "network.protocol-handler.app.http" in the window "about:config" but that line doesn't appear on my thunderbird.

My previous install:
thunderbird 2.0.0.12
XP SP¨2

My new install:
thunderbird 2.0.0.12
Vista family basic

Does anyone know what line I can change in "about:config" (or what I can do) so that url will open in a browser ?

Thx for your help

Post by **Daifne** » March 14th, 2008, 7:50 am

Your operating system has forgotten what the default browser is. Try the different methods here, rebooting between attempts: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Default_browser

andyt22 · Post by **andyt22** » December 11th, 2009, 6:33 am

I just thought I'd mention that the original solution posted by Beastux back in April 2004 solved a problem for me too. One of our users uses Firefox & Thunderbird on a DEC Alpha running Compaq Tru64 UNIX with the CDE desktop manager and the script posted back then fixed this.

It might be worth making the 'default browser' issue more prominent in the Thunderbird/Firefox documentation as not all of us use gnome or KDE, or even Linux (I'm using fvwm2 on OpenSolaris for example and I know of others who use Mozilla products under the Windowmaker window manager on FreeBSD). I'm glad I found this thread - keep up the good work!

cheers, Andy

Thunderbird won't open browser

Re: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION

Thunderbird won't open Browser

Summary

Re: Thunderbird won't open browser