Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

mcubednyc · 2004-03-23 14:54:30

Using thunderbird-0.5 and firefox-0.8.1, both packages installed with pacman. When I click on a URL in an email, Thunderbird pops up a dialog asking what application I want to use to open it. I navigated to /opt/mozilla-firefox/bin/firefox. Then I get a dialog asking me what profile I want to use. I have only one, "default." But it won't let me use it. It says it is already in use. This happens regardless of whether or not firefox is running.

I also tried /opt/mozilla-firefox/lib/mozilla-1.6/firefox-bin, with the same result.

How do I get tbird to use my existing firefox profile to open links? I found some discussion of the issue on the Mozillazine forum, but no authoritative solutions. I couldn't find anything in the tbird or firefox FAQs, which are overwhelmingly focused on Windows issues.

Any suggestions?

zeppelin · 2004-03-23 15:11:14

see here:
http://www.mozilla.org/unix/remote.html

especially the openURL (URL, new-tab)

in Gnome I think you can pass it via the http(s) handlers [in gconf2]
as mozilla-firefox -remote "openURL (%s, new-tab)"

not sure though. try and tell us the correct one if you succeed. GL

Xentac · 2004-03-23 16:02:08

Try /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox. That handles the window-already-is-open-so-don't-spawn-another-one case.

mcubednyc · 2004-03-23 16:48:47

Pointing tbird to /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox seems to work. It opened a new browser window (I already had one open) and didn't ask for a profile.

I'm not quite sure how or where I could use the remote option from the Moz website. This is all pretty new to me, sorry ... I'm still stumbling around quite a bit. I don't use Gnome. It would be nice to get a link in tbird to open a new tab instead of a new browser window, but I can live it opening a new window. At least now it opens something!

Thanks for the tips.

Xentac · 2004-03-23 17:11:23

Edit /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox. There are two lines near the top that say:

OPEN_IN=new-window
#OPEN_IN=new-tab

Comment out new-window and uncomment new-tab.

mcubednyc · 2004-03-24 01:26:54

Xentac wrote:

Edit /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox.

ARRRGH! It would never have occured to me to edit a bin ... I have a long way to go

There are still some issues with doing it like this, however. For instance, if I'm already logged in at a Yahoo group site, then I open a new tab from a tbird email link to a second group, Yahoo doesn't recognize that I'm already logged in. And my sign-in/password data isn't stored in the new tab (the one opened from tbird), I have to re-enter it. That's not the way the two programs interact under Windows, but under Windows the default is for tbird to reuse the existing active tab if you already have firefox open. The default action can be changed if you use Tabbrower Extensions (there's an item in the firefox FAQ about this), so that a link from tbird will open a new tab and otherwise all will be as normal. But of course all this depends upon you first setting firebird as your default browser under Windows. The difference seems to be that under Linux there is no "default" setting for tbird to interpret -- i.e., there's no "default" browser.

...Which brings me a larger question that should probably be in "newbie corner" -- is the only way around this to run under a DE like Gnome/KDE?

zeppelin · 2004-03-25 12:57:55

a) it is natural that you couldn't easily guess that you should edit a ASCII file in the bin directory. so don't worry

b) it loads the icon of mozilla. yet FireFox has a different icon than mozilla's [I'm just mentioning it]
AL rocks

mcubednyc · 2004-03-25 19:01:36

zeppelin wrote:

b) it loads the icon of mozilla. yet FireFox has a different icon than mozilla's [I'm just mentioning it]

You mean the throbber? I don't have any other icons.

I'm gonna try using the Moz 1.6 (or whatever's current now) suite instead of tbird/fbird for now. I'm hoping the suite will behave as expected, since it's one integrated application. I've got too many other things to learn to keep banging my head against this particular problem.

zeppelin · 2004-03-25 19:46:33

mozilla suite has the red head of a dinosaur
firefox (aka firebird) has a red fire and a bit of bird stuff. I really like the new logo [the red yellow fox that sourrouned the globe]. when that one hits firefox then i belive arch should use it. now for firefox it uses mozilla's suite icon [red head]

thx xentac

mcubednyc · 2004-03-25 20:17:56

Well yes, I know what the icons are, I just don't know where you're seeing them. I'm not sure what you're speaking of when you say "it loads the icons...," nor what you mean by Arch using the Moz dinosaur icon instead of the firefox icon. Like I said, I don't have any icons on my desktop or anywhere else, unless they are in a file somewhere. The only symbol I have is the throbber, which of course varies according to whatever theme you use in mozilla or in firefox. But I agree, the new firefox icon is nice, though I also liked the phoenix/firebird icon with the flames.

BTW, I've changed over to Mozilla 1.6 and it works great ... links from moz mail & news open in the browser without complaint. Seems to me tbird needs some more work, but it is at only v0.5. (OTOH, Arch is at only v0.6, and it works beautifullly )

Arch Linux

#1 2004-03-23 14:54:30

Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#2 2004-03-23 15:11:14

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#3 2004-03-23 16:02:08

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#4 2004-03-23 16:48:47

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#5 2004-03-23 17:11:23

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#6 2004-03-24 01:26:54

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#7 2004-03-25 12:57:55

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#8 2004-03-25 19:01:36

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#9 2004-03-25 19:46:33

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

#10 2004-03-25 20:17:56

Re: Open URLs in Tbird with Firefox

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