Thunderbird is a stand-alone mail/news client based on the Mozilla codebase. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to enable it to display and compose HTML emails.
This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-11.0 platform.
Download (HTTP): https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/91.0.3/source/thunderbird-91.0.3.source.tar.xz
Download MD5 sum: f08dd55b8b1b0baf2c38a88aa3734cf8
Download size: 390 MB
Estimated disk space required: 6.9 GB (201 MB installed)
Estimated build time: 29 SBU (on a 4-core machine)
Autoconf-2.13, Cbindgen-0.20.0, dbus-glib-0.112, both GTK+-3.24.30 and GTK+-2.24.33, LLVM-12.0.1 including clang, nodejs-14.17.5, PulseAudio-15.0 (or alsa-lib-1.2.5.1 if you edit the mozconfig; although it is now deprecated by mozilla), Python-3.9.6 (rebuilt with the sqlite module), startup-notification-0.12, Zip-3.0, UnZip-6.0, and yasm-1.3.0
ICU-69.1, libevent-2.1.12, NASM-2.15.05, NSPR-4.32, and NSS-3.69
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
If you don't install recommended dependencies, then internal copies of those packages will be used. They might be tested to work, but they can be out of date or contain security holes.
Cyrus SASL-2.1.27, Doxygen-1.9.2, GConf-3.2.6, Wget-1.21.1, Wireless Tools-29, and watchman
User Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/Thunderbird
The build process for Thunderbird can use 8GB+ of RAM when linking. Make sure that you have adequate swap or RAM before continuing.
The configuration of Thunderbird
is accomplished by creating a mozconfig file containing the desired
configuration options. A default mozconfig is created below. To see the entire
list of available configuration options (and a brief description of
each), issue mozilla/configure
--help. Create the file with the following command:
cat > mozconfig << "EOF"
# If you have a multicore machine, all cores will be used.
# If you have installed wireless-tools comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi
# Uncomment the following option if you have not installed PulseAudio
#ac_add_options --disable-pulseaudio
# and uncomment this if you installed alsa-lib instead of PulseAudio
#ac_add_options --enable-alsa
# Comment out following options if you have not installed
# recommended dependencies:
ac_add_options --with-system-libevent
ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
ac_add_options --with-system-nss
ac_add_options --with-system-icu
# The elf-hack causes failed installs on some machines.
# It is supposed to improve startup time and it shrinks libxul.so
# by a few MB - comment this if you know your machine is not affected.
ac_add_options --disable-elf-hack
# The BLFS editors recommend not changing anything below this line:
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
ac_add_options --enable-application=comm/mail
ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-debug-symbols
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --enable-optimize=-O2
ac_add_options --enable-linker=gold
ac_add_options --enable-strip
ac_add_options --enable-install-strip
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --enable-system-pixman
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
EOF
Apply a patch which allows compilation on systems running glibc-2.34:
patch -p1 -i ../thunderbird-91.0.3-glibc234-1.patch
Now invoke the Python mach script to compile Thunderbird:
If you are compiling this package in chroot you must do two
things. First, as the root user,
ensure that /dev/shm is mounted. If
you do not do this, the Python
configury will fail with a traceback report referencing
/usr/lib/pythonN.N/multiprocessing/synchronize.py.
Run:
mountpoint -q /dev/shm || mount -t tmpfs devshm /dev/shm
Second, either as the root user
export the $SHELL environment variable
using export
SHELL=/bin/sh or else prepend SHELL=/bin/sh when running the ./mach commands.
export CC=gcc CXX=g++ && export MACH_USE_SYSTEM_PYTHON=1 && ./mach create-mach-environment && ./mach configure && ./mach build
This package does not come with a test suite.
Install Thunderbird by running the
following commands as the root
user:
MACH_USE_SYSTEM_PYTHON=1 ./mach install
Empty the environment variables which were set above:
unset CC CXX MACH_USE_SYSTEM_PYTHON
CC=gcc CXX=g++ ./mach configure: Thunderbird now uses this python3 script to run the configuration, build and install. Forcing GCC causes the build to come out smaller and run faster.
MACH_USE_SYSTEM_PYTHON=1: Use the system python to create a virtual environment for mach without downloading any python wheels.
./mach build --verbose: Use this
alternative if you need details of which files are being compiled,
together with any C or C++ flags being used.
If your Window or Desktop Manager does not allow you to configure a default browser, you can add a configuration parameter to Thunderbird so that a browser will start when you click on an Internet/intranet/local URL. The procedure to check or modify any of the configuration parameters is quite simple and the instructions here can be used to view or modify any of the parameters.
First, open the configuration dialog by opening the “Edit” drop-down menu. Choose “Preferences” and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. Then, click the “Config Editor” button. Click on the “I accept the risk!” button. This will display a list of the configuration preferences and information related to each one. You can use the “Filter:” bar to enter search criteria and narrow down the listed items. Changing a preference can be done using two methods. One, if the preference has a boolean value (True/False), simply double-click on the preference to toggle the value and two, for other preferences simply right-click on the desired line, choose “Modify” from the menu and change the value. Creating new preference items is accomplished in the same way, except choose “New” from the menu and provide the desired data into the fields when prompted.
The configuration preference item you need to check so that
Thunderbird uses a specified
browser is the network.protocol-handler.app.http
which should be set to the path of the desired browser, e.g.
/usr/bin/firefox.
![[Tip]](../images/tip.png)
There is a multitude of configuration parameters you can tweak to customize Thunderbird. A very extensive, but not so up-to-date list of these parameters can be found at http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html.
If you use a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE, a desktop file thunderbird.desktop may be created, in order to
include a “Thunderbird” entry in
the menu. Run the following commands as the root user:
mkdir -pv /usr/share/{applications,pixmaps} &&
cat > /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop << "EOF" &&
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Thunderbird Mail
Comment=Send and receive mail with Thunderbird
GenericName=Mail Client
Exec=thunderbird %u
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=thunderbird
Categories=Network;Email;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;x-scheme-handler/mailto;
StartupNotify=true
EOF
ln -sfv /usr/lib/thunderbird/chrome/icons/default/default256.png \
/usr/share/pixmaps/thunderbird.png
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