New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

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jonnycat5000
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New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by jonnycat5000 »

I have found a number of webpages describing the option, in Thunderbird, of creating a new account to read the Unix Mailspool, but I can't seem to find the option in my current version of Thunderbird (38.5.1). It is supposed to be the first screen after hitting "add other account" from "Account Actions", but it isn't there.

Was this feature removed, and/or is it still available?
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tanstaafl
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by tanstaafl »

Somebody decided to remove it as an option in the new account wizard several years ago. However, you can create a POP account and then modify the account type from "pop3" to "movemail" account using the config editor . There is a manual config button in the new account wizard that will create an account using the existing settings without checking whether the username/password can be used to login. See http://www-archive.mozilla.org/mailnews ... index.html

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ol-177930/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ot-482777/
wsmwk
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by wsmwk »

No, not removed. Just moved. It is now under "Add Other Account". see http://i.imgur.com/nOcPOCl.png
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tanstaafl
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by tanstaafl »

In my copy of Thunderbird 38.7.2 "Add Other Account" only has "add newsgroup account". Ditto for a Earlybird 47.0a2 build. See http://i64.tinypic.com/21on5e.png
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by wsmwk »

tanstaafl wrote:In my copy of Thunderbird 38.7.2 "Add Other Account" only has "add newsgroup account". Ditto for a Earlybird 47.0a2 build. See http://i64.tinypic.com/21on5e.png
movemail account type only appears for Thunderbird installed on unix systems
Last edited by wsmwk on April 6th, 2016, 7:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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tanstaafl
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by tanstaafl »

He appears to be using Linux x86_64 and stated he didn't see that account type option for "add other account". He didn't mention the old location shown in https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:He ... an_Account . Can you be more specific about what its testing?

Out of curiosity is there anyway to fool it if I am using Cygwin to run the mail server and fetchmail under Windows?
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by wsmwk »

tanstaafl wrote:He appears to be using Linux x86_64 and stated he didn't see that account type option for "add other account". He didn't mention the old location shown in https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:He ... an_Account . Can you be more specific about what its testing?
Don't know. But a reasonable first step for the reporter is to test Thunderbird in safe mode.
tanstaafl wrote:Out of curiosity is there anyway to fool it if I am using Cygwin to run the mail server and fetchmail under Windows?
No idea, but I doubt it. Try it?
jonnycat5000
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by jonnycat5000 »

[
tanstaafl wrote: However, you can create a POP account and then modify the
account type from "pop3" to "movemail" account using the config editor.
Thanks lunch, I found settings in the config editor regarding
"mail.server.server(#).<type>". Is there a way to create a new "Preference Name"
heading in the config editor, because I don't have a <mail.root.movemail> or
<mail.root.movemail-rel>?

wsm wrote:No, not removed. Just moved. It is now under "Add Other Account".
see http://i.imgur.com/nOcPOCl.png
I don't see that when I go to that screen, only an option for newsgroups.
However, if I create a new (blank) profile, it looks just like the image you
posted. Perhaps my current profile is having issues?
tanstaafl wrote:He appears to be using Linux x86_64 and stated he didn't see
that account type option for "add other account". He didn't mention the old
location shown in
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:He ... an_Account .
Can you be more specific about what its testing?
Yes, I am using the Thunderbird (linux, x86_64) as downloaded from mozilla.org.

If I create a new profile, I do see it as an option under "New > Other
Accounts", but not in my current profile.
wsm wrote:But a reasonable first step for the reporter is to test
Thunderbird in safe mode.
I tried it in Safe Mode but it still is not available with my current profile
(only a new profile).
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tanstaafl
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by tanstaafl »

jonnycat5000 wrote:I found settings in the config editor regarding
"mail.server.server(#).<type>". Is there a way to create a new "Preference Name"
heading in the config editor, because I don't have a <mail.root.movemail> or
<mail.root.movemail-rel>?
Yes. The config editor in tools -> options -> advanced -> general (under Linux that would be Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General) provides a GUI that is equivalent to about:config in Firefox. http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config explains how to use it to add another setting. You need to know whether its a String, Integer or Boolean. http://forum.fedoraonline.it/viewtopic.php?pid=172179#p172179 has a comment where somebody copied and pasted many of their settings from prefs.js, including some for movemail. It looks like it would use a String.

user_pref("mail.root.movemail", "/home/luciano/.thunderbird/k2wf6mxv.default/Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.movemail-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");

The user_pref prefix and the parentheses is due to it being stored in the prefs.js file. You would not see that using the config editor.
wsmwk
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by wsmwk »

jonnycat5000 wrote:
wsm wrote:But a reasonable first step for the reporter is to test
Thunderbird in safe mode.
I tried it in Safe Mode but it still is not available with my current profile
(only a new profile).
Are you using the mozilla supplied download?
If not, which distro of linux are you using?
jonnycat5000
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by jonnycat5000 »

tanstaafl wrote: The config editor in tools -> options -> advanced -> general (under Linux that would be Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General) provides a GUI that is equivalent to about:config in Firefox. http://kb.mozillazine.org/About&#058;config explains how to use it to add another setting. You need to know whether its a String, Integer or Boolean. http://forum.fedoraonline.it/viewtopic. ... 79#p172179 has a comment where somebody copied and pasted many of their settings from prefs.js, including some for movemail. It looks like it would use a String.

user_pref("mail.root.movemail", "/home/luciano/.thunderbird/k2wf6mxv.default/Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.movemail-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");

The user_pref prefix and the parentheses is due to it being stored in the prefs.js file. You would not see that using the config editor.
Thanks again lunch. As it turns out I didn't have to add a "mail.root" preference for movemail, I think it has been deprecated (the existing ones in my profile for POP3 et. al. point to an old, non-existent profile), and I didn't see a listing for it in http://kb.mozillazine.org/About&#058;config_entries.

I did change the POP3 type to movemail and it's working fine. The only difference is that the "Advanced" button is missing from "ServerSettings", so I can't select to "Include this server when getting new mail".

Thanks for the help, it is appreciated.

wsm wrote: Are you using the mozilla supplied download?
If not, which distro of linux are you using?
Yes, I am currently using the Thunderbird (linux, x86_64) as downloaded from mozilla.org a month or two ago. The profile, however, is about four years old, and for most of that time (over three years) it was running under an RPMFusion (Fedora) version of Thunderbird, but was originally created (about four years ago) under a Mint supplied binary IIRC.
rsx11m
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by rsx11m »

FWIW, Thunderbird 38.7.2 as downloaded from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ shows the Movemail option in the "Add other account" dialog for me with an existing (reasonably old) profile, both when invoked from the File menu and from the Account Manager. I'm wondering what may make the option disappear in a profile, given that the option should solely depend on the platform?
tanstaafl wrote:Out of curiosity is there anyway to fool it if I am using Cygwin to run the mail server and fetchmail under Windows?
Unlikely. Since Thunderbird isn't using the Cygwin DLL, it will still "think" it's on Windows even if invoked from a Cygwin shell. You'd have to build Thunderbird within Cygwin using gcc and gtk, which sounds like a lot of fun... 8-)
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by rsx11m »

jonnycat5000 wrote:If I create a new profile, I do see it as an option under "New > Other
Accounts", but not in my current profile.
So, digging a bit further, the Linux version has a file isp/movemail.rdf as "provider" in the installation directory, which is missing on Windows. Renaming that file to not end in *.rdf removes the entry from the dialog. Thus, movemail.rdf is packaged for the Linux builds but not for Windows (and no longer for OSX either), then treated as a pre-configured provider.

For some reason, when using your current profile, that mechanism seems to be disabled, hence movemail isn't offered as a configuration option. I couldn't find any preference relating to isp.* which seems to have any impact on that menu item (and that file isn't part of the profile, thus shouldn't be affected by it unless it can be overridden by something in the currently active profile).
jonnycat5000
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by jonnycat5000 »

Thanks for that rsx, I do indeed have the /isp/movemail.rdf file present, as would be expected given that movemail is present in a new profile. I have allowed a MSWindows OS to access the same profile in the past (it is a shared profile on a seperate partition); maybe Windows does something to the existing profile to remove the movemail option?
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Re: New Account: "Unix Mailspool" (movemail) option missing?

Post by wsmwk »

jonnycat5000 wrote:Thanks for that rsx, I do indeed have the /isp/movemail.rdf file present, as would be expected given that movemail is present in a new profile. I have allowed a MSWindows OS to access the same profile in the past (it is a shared profile on a seperate partition); maybe Windows does something to the existing profile to remove the movemail option?
Please file a bug report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug. ... hunderbird and reference this forum posting with the URL
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