Thunderbird and links opening in chrome

mcloaked · 2017-10-04 10:40:46

For some time I have had a puzzling behaviour when clicking a web link in an email within Thunderbird. I had set Thunderbird to open http and https links in the Chrome (stable) browser when clicked. If Chrome is already running then clicking such links in an email opens the correct link in the browser without any issues. However if Chrome is not running then clicking a link in an email opens Chrome as expected, but then the link fails to open in the tab saying that the web page may be down. If I close chrome and simply re-open it, and then click the link in Thunderbird again it opens just fine. Can anyone suggest a workaround for this behaviour? It's not a major problem since I can simply open Chrome before starting Thunderbird but it's puzzled me for a while now.

eschwartz · 2017-10-04 15:20:24

Is this really a Thunderbird issue or does it happen when opening links from anywhere? AFAIK Thunderbird is not doing anything special there. e.g.

xdg-open https://example.com

mcloaked · 2017-10-04 15:56:12

Eschwartz wrote:

Is this really a Thunderbird issue or does it happen when opening links from anywhere? AFAIK Thunderbird is not doing anything special there. e.g.
xdg-open https://example.com

I tried your command from a konsole window - it works fine whether or not chrome is already running. Closing down chrome again, and clicking on a link in Thunderbird I got the same message in the centre of the chrome window:

"This site can’t be reached

The web page at https://www.XXXXXXX might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
ERR_FAILED".

Trying to open any other tab once that has happened gets the same response clicking on one of the links in my favourites. Closing chrome again and starting it before trying to click a link in Thunderbird and all is well again. It's strange! This has been happening for quite a long time with multiple updates to both Thunderbird, and Chrome (stable from AUR).

Last edited by mcloaked (2017-10-04 15:58:42)

whompus · 2017-10-05 15:02:17

I had an issue a while ago but using Vivaldi and Claws-Mail and my problem was the nameserver setting in /etc/resolv.conf being wrong. It may not be your problem but could be worth looking at, unfortunately I cannot remember what I did to correct the problem.

mcloaked · 2017-10-05 15:50:23

whompus wrote:

I had an issue a while ago but using Vivaldi and Claws-Mail and my problem was the nameserver setting in /etc/resolv.conf being wrong. It may not be your problem but could be worth looking at, unfortunately I cannot remember what I did to correct the problem.

I don't think that is an issue in my case - name resolution works perfectly for everything else in the system - and it works fine if chrome is already running - bizarre!

Arch Linux

#1 2017-10-04 10:40:46

Thunderbird and links opening in chrome

#2 2017-10-04 15:20:24

Re: Thunderbird and links opening in chrome

#3 2017-10-04 15:56:12

Re: Thunderbird and links opening in chrome

#4 2017-10-05 15:02:17

Re: Thunderbird and links opening in chrome

#5 2017-10-05 15:50:23

Re: Thunderbird and links opening in chrome

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