Score:6

Thunderbird strange behaviour. Ubuntu 21.04

cn flag

First run of Tbird after any boot is fine. Then if I rightclick Tbird icon, New dropdown is displayed permanently.(Obliterates top of Icon bar) Dropdown menu has no effect if clicked upon. Also this disables AltTab. If sysmon used to stop Tbird then it will not restart from icon or from Applications.

If started from Terminal then this is output:

$ thunderbird
[calBackendLoader] Using Thunderbird's libical backend
console.debug: "Successfully loaded OpenPGP library librnp.so version 0.14+git20210121.7c8492b4.MZLA from /usr/lib/thunderbird/librnp.so"
Extension error: Error while loading 'jar:file:///usr/lib/thunderbird/extensions/[email protected]!/manifest.json' (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) resource://gre/modules/Extension.jsm:570 :: readJSON/</<@resource://gre/modules/Extension.jsm:570:20
onStopRequest@resource://gre/modules/NetUtil.jsm:128:18

Extension error: Error while loading 'jar:file:///usr/lib/thunderbird/omni.ja!/chrome/messenger/search-extensions/twitter/manifest.json' (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) resource://gre/modules/Extension.jsm:570 :: readJSON/</<@resource://gre/modules/Extension.jsm:570:20
onStopRequest@resource://gre/modules/NetUtil.jsm:128:18

console.debug: "Found 0 public keys and 0 secret keys (0 protected, 0 unprotected)"
console.debug: "Successfully loaded optional OpenPGP library libgpgme.so.11 from system's standard library locations"
console.debug: "gpgme version: 1.14.0-unknown"
console.debug: "Trying to load /usr/lib/thunderbird/libotr.so.5"
console.debug: "Trying to load libotr.so.5 from system's standard library locations"
console.debug: "Trying to load libotr.so from system's standard library locations"
console.log: (new Error("Cannot load required OTR library", "resource:///modules/OTRLib.jsm", 91))

Any ideas please?

vanadium avatar
cn flag
Your terminal input gives error messages related to thunderbird extensions. So I would first look in that direction.
heynnema avatar
ru flag
It's a new TB 78.11.0 bug. Hitting the SUPER key clears the dropdown, but TB still has problems after that. A log out/in seems to be the only way to fix it, until the next time it occurs.
Score:3
cn flag

There's a workaround for this bug by modifying the thunderbird.desktop file in /usr/share/applications, see the description in launchpad https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1932328

Since the combination of Thunderbird and Wayland triggers this bug, the workaround is to run Thunderbird as a X11 application. This uses XWayland which is an interface that allows to run X clients in Wayland.

As a side effect, fractional scaling will lead to blurry results with Thunderbird (as usual with X11).

For your convenience and for all the people googling this bug, I'll repeat the fix here. To use XWayland by default from the Gnome shell, modify /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop and change the line

Exec=thunderbird %u

into

Exec=thunderbird --display=:0 %u
cn flag
Tried that. But for me it caused a complete freeze upon right clicking on TB icon then Compose or address book. Cursor frozen, keyboard locked out. Cold reboot from hard power switch only option. I shall await greater minds upstream solution.
cn flag
Also I note that with Wayland the display occludes every now and again for about 1 second as if there was a power cut/glitch. Never did this prior to v21.04.
Markus Heinrich avatar
cn flag
@rpaco I haven't tried right-clicking on the icon, I usually don't use that functionality. Anyway I expect that the bug gets fixed in Thunderbird/Wayland soon. It is still unassigned in launchpad tough ...
Markus Heinrich avatar
cn flag
@rpaco Are you then using the GNOME shell with X11 on logon?
cn flag
No idea mate! I cannot copy the "About" details. but it says Display type Wayland. Gnome version 3.38.5. If you tell me where to look I will look.
heynnema avatar
ru flag
This corrupted my Thunderbird default profile. All my logins/passwords were gone. I had to recover from my backups.
Markus Heinrich avatar
cn flag
@rpaco On the login screen, after selecting your username, there's a setting button in the down right corner. Check "Ubuntu on Xorg" instead of "Ubuntu" to run a GNOME session using the Xorg server instead of Wayland. This used to be default until recently. Wayland is a more modern graphics server, so you might use some feature like fractional scaling if you run Ubuntu with Xorg.
Markus Heinrich avatar
cn flag
@heynnema Interesting, worked like a charm for me. You might consider going back to Xorg as well, if that doesn't affect any functionality that you need. You could also post your issue with the workaround in the launchpad I linked in my answer.
cn flag
@Markus Heinrich Ah ha! Yes. I had not noticed that button before, I have now selected Ubuntu on Xorg which seems to solve the problem. I will wait and see if the Occluding display is also fixed. Many thanks!
cn flag
I am now happily back on Xorg but forgot to mention another strange effect of Wayland upon TB. If creating a message filter: Upon selecting any of the dropdown options ie To/from, is/includes Move etc the mouse buttons stop being read and one has to use cursor keys plus return instead to select any of the options. It still works but not well.
Score:0
cn flag

got exactly the same error on U 21.04 TB 78.11.0

Disabling QuickFolders seems to make the problem disappear

Willie Robert avatar
tr flag
Hmmmm I'm not sure: I have the exact same problem without QuickFolder extension.
Score:0
in flag

Markus's solution eliminated the flickering menus' problem in my Thunderbird 102.11.0, Ubuntu 22.04. Thanks!

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