Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

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jelabarre59
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Joined: July 23rd, 2012, 10:31 am

Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by jelabarre59 »

OK, I thought this was just a bug in Cinnamon desktop, but now I've seen it with Mate as well.

I am finding that on occasion Thunderbird is getting set as the "default" application for web browsing. Normally I would be using Firefox-ESR as my preferred browser, but then I'll find I can't open links, and that will be because Thunderbird will inexplicably be set as my web browser (Preferred Applications setting in both Cinnamon and Mate desktops, LinuxMint 18.2). I'll set it back, and it actually stays correct for a day or two (maybe more if I put my system to sleep rather than shut down and restart). As I said, I thought it might have been something in Cinnamon (quirk happens on two separate machines), but now I saw it on another machine running Mate desktop (the only common factor would be both are derivatives of Gnome some years back).
Last edited by LIMPET235 on October 24th, 2017, 6:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added [Linux] to the title.
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LIMPET235
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Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by LIMPET235 »

Moving to Thunderbird Support...
[Ancient Amateur Astronomer.]
Win-10-H/64 bit/500G SSD/16 Gig Ram/450Watt PSU/350WattUPS/Firefox-115.0.2/T-bird-115.3.2./SnagIt-v10.0.1/MWP-7.12.125.

(Always choose the "Custom" Install.)
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tanstaafl
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Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by tanstaafl »

Are you using a Mozilla build or a third party build provided by your Linux distro? If the latter, it might be a bug in the third party build. Ubuntu's Thunderbird build has a history of adding patches that Mozilla didn't consider ready yet for production use, and making minor changes to where stuff is stored. Perhaps LinuxMint is doing the same thing (or inherited it from Ubuntu).
jelabarre59
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Joined: July 23rd, 2012, 10:31 am

Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by jelabarre59 »

This is with the standard Thunderbird included with LinuxMint/Ubuntu. It did it again today in fact. Seems if Firefox is running, Thunderbird will steal the setting
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tanstaafl
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Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by tanstaafl »

I don't know whats causing it, especially since its not repeatable upon demand. See if setting the browser used by Thunderbird per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Changing_the_ ... hunderbird and then setting the system default browser per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Default_browser helps.
jelabarre59
Posts: 14
Joined: July 23rd, 2012, 10:31 am

Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by jelabarre59 »

I've swithed my default browser to Waterfox, and encountered the same issue today. Still haven't nailed down the exact sequence to make it switch.
jelabarre59
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Joined: July 23rd, 2012, 10:31 am

Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by jelabarre59 »

This seemed to have gone away, but now it's back with a vengeance. I'll have TBird (68.2.2) and Waterfox (2020.01) running, and I will have been able to open links within an email just fine. Then abruptly, without having closed Waterfox or Thunderbird, even within a couple of minutes of it having worked, I won't be able to open a URL from Thunderbird, and will find TBird will have stolen the web browser preference.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by tanstaafl »

It sounds like something external to both applications is the culprit. If you believe its a bug in Thunderbird I suggest you switch to version 60.9.1 for a while and see if the problem goes away. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird for where to get the generic linux setup program for Thunderbird 60.9.1. If your profile was created by version 68.* you might need to add a --allow-downgrade command line argument to allow version 60.9.1 to use it. Or use the profile manager to create a new profile and copy&paste the contents of the old profile into it.

You will probably have more luck getting advice in a Linux Mate forum. My first thought would be to find out how to do some sort of automated logging of when these settings change.
graemev
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Joined: December 18th, 2020, 9:42 am

Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by graemev »

OK, getting this on Buster (Debian) with Cinnamon desktop. I have "Yahoo Finance Quotes" running. If I click on any ticker , it opens "Thunderbird" as the HTML browser.

Various things to attempt to set it back to firefox:

Some of these produced various odd results.

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser
sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-www-browser

Here are the choices I had:

Code: Select all

graeme:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

There are 2 choices for the alternative x-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                           Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable   200       auto mode
* 1            /usr/bin/firefox-esr            70        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable   200       manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 

Setting firefox.

One odd behaviour (here is log):

For background, the strange behaviour (Thunderbird as browser) started when I installed Chrome.

graeme:~/Desktop$ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/http
thunderbird.desktop



graeme:~/Desktop$ xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/http
graeme:~/Desktop$ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/http
google-chrome.desktop

graeme:~/Desktop$ xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/http
graeme:~/Desktop$ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/http
google-chrome.desktop


**STOP PRESS**

I just installed an update to firefox, via synaptic. Following this "Yahoo Finance Quotes" now launches (some version of) Firefox, and:

graeme:~$ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/http
userapp-Firefox-20LKKY.desktop

The choices for update-alternatives were unchanged

My guess this was simply because Firefox was reinstalled, not due to a fix in firefox.
graemev
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Joined: December 18th, 2020, 9:42 am

Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by graemev »

In an amusing aside, I got sent a link from this site (probably because of my post) . Opening this in Thunderbird, produce a new dialogue (this is AFTER the "fix" above) so it looks like there is an actual setting inside Thunderbird , not simply using e.g. xdg-mime or update-alternatives(8) :



Image

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i31v9qj5h538u ... g.png?dl=0

I case the image is not visible, it's a popup window [from Thunderbird] with:

Launch Application:
This link needs to be opened with an application, Choose:
+ Firefox
+Thunderbird
+Firefox ESR
+Google Chrome
Wurzelkoch
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Joined: April 3rd, 2021, 4:29 am

Re: Thunderbird stealing web browser preference. [Linux.]

Post by Wurzelkoch »

I too have this problem after installing chrome on a debian 9 with lxqt.
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