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how to install Tbird on Debian 8

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by frank4360

frank4360
frank4360
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I want to install Tbird, not Icedove, on Debian 8, but keep getting failures.

The latest is 

"XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/frank/thunderbird/libxul.so:

libXcomposite.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Couldn't load XPCOM." 

when executing "thunderbird/thunderbird" in the home folder.

The output of "uname -a" is "Linux AcerNetbook 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt11-1 (2015-05-24) x86_64 GNU/Linux"


I run Tbird successfully on Debian 8 on an older i386 system, but I can't remember the steps I went through.


I would think that this is a pretty common requirement, so there may be an answer somewhere, but after several days I haven't found one.

All suggestions gratefully accepted.

I want to install Tbird, not Icedove, on Debian 8, but keep getting failures. The latest is "XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/frank/thunderbird/libxul.so: libXcomposite.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Couldn't load XPCOM." when executing "thunderbird/thunderbird" in the home folder. The output of "uname -a" is "Linux AcerNetbook 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt11-1 (2015-05-24) x86_64 GNU/Linux" I run Tbird successfully on Debian 8 on an older i386 system, but I can't remember the steps I went through. I would think that this is a pretty common requirement, so there may be an answer somewhere, but after several days I haven't found one. All suggestions gratefully accepted.

Chosen solution

Are you trying to run 32-bit or 64-bit Thunderbird? since you have 64-bit Linux.

https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/all/

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (5)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I don't have Debian, but I did locate this on youtube. does it help?

James
James
  • Top 25 Contributor
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

Are you trying to run 32-bit or 64-bit Thunderbird? since you have 64-bit Linux.

https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/all/

frank4360
frank4360 Question owner
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I have tried both, but the latest failure was with the 64 bit version.

The working version on an older computer with Debian 8 is the 32 bit Tbird - so using Synaptic to check which packages are loaded on that system and comparing with the 64 bit system has not been particularly useful!

frank4360
frank4360 Question owner
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Toad-Hall said

I don't have Debian, but I did locate this on youtube. does it help?

Not at all - the blog seems to assume that extracting the tarball and executing the Tbird application will work, which it doesn't in my case. The reference to Applications is not relevant as it assumes Gnome and I use XFCE4.

frank4360
frank4360 Question owner
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James said

Are you trying to run 32-bit or 64-bit Thunderbird? since you have 64-bit Linux. https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/all/

Success - I followed the link (https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/all/) which allowed me to select 64 bit for Linux, and it was not the download offered from the Mozilla Tbird download which I must have used before. The installation was then perfectly straightforward.

I am (fairly) sure that I had tried the 64 bit version, although I must be mistaken. The Download offered from the Mozilla Tbird web page (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/) is for i686.


Thanks for all the help.