This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Use another Filemanger in Linux

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by castellum

more options

I am running thunderbird on Linux / Chromebook. Is it possible to have Thunderbird us another filemanager in Linux?

I am running thunderbird on Linux / Chromebook. Is it possible to have Thunderbird us another filemanager in Linux?

All Replies (8)

more options

My understanding is that what is used is the system default, so try changing that.

more options

What you see in the 'attatchment' section does not look like anything Linux default. I think it is a Thunderbird internal thing. But it does not cope with the Linux on Chrome OS file system Any way. I switched from Nemo to Nautilus and back. But that did not help.

more options

I think the starting point is that there is no released version of Thunderbird for Chrome OS. My understanding of chrome books is they run Chrome OS. So perhaps you might want to discuss what can and can not be done with the folk that built you copy of Thunderbird.

This is about the state of the art. https://www.quora.com/How-is-Mozilla-Thunderbird-on-Chromebook

There does appear to be an add-on for chrome in the app sotre. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/thunderbird-online-mozill/fajkohdialmlcffkdlhdnedoecahkabk?hl=en I will see what I can do to get Mozilla legal onto them as the product is not from Mozilla or the Thunderbird community so is probably illegally using the name and the mark.

more options

Hi Matt,

I am aware Thunderbird is not supported on ChromeOS.

So of course I am not running it on chromeOS. It is running on Linux. ChromeOS runs Linux as a virtual. This function is embedded in the newer ChromeOS versions. I think it is a Debian distribution. That way Chromebook users can run Linux software if needed. I use gimp on it for example for photo editing.

Thunderbird is running a just fine that way. It is just the 'attatchment' section that does not work.

more options
What you see in the 'attatchment' section does not look like anything Linux default.

I'd be curious about what you're actually seeing, and what the complaint is all about. Perhaps you could post a screenshot?

Also I doubt Thunderbird cares about the file manager being used at all. If anything, I'd expect the window manager, and hence the desktop environment may play a role here.

Since you mentioned Nautilus as a file manager, I supposed your desktop environment is Gnome.

Debian isn't known to use the latest versions of software being installed, so your Gnome version may simply be outdated.

more options

Screendump,

The complaint is that the buttons in this screen do not work in my setup. I can not maneuver through files and i can not select anything and so I can not add attachments.

In chromeOS Linux is running ín the background' You do not use a Linux desktop. Linux applications are installed in the Linux environment but you use the Chrome desktop to start them. For a simple user like me it looks as if it is part of ChromeOS.

I installed the lates versions of Nautilus and Nemo myself but as I wrote before. The thing in the screen shot does not look like on of those at all.

Besides that. If i open config files and directory in the preferences section that does use the Nautilus browser. And it woks fine.

Modified by castellum

more options

Am I the only one using Thunderbird with Chromebook?

more options

I discovered something strange here.

Since I did not get it to work I decided to look for another mailc lient. I installed mailspring and gave that ago. When creating an email and adding a attachment it opened exactly the same screen as Thunderbird does as a file manager. But in mailspring I could actually operate the filemanger and select files..

When openening Thunderbird after that it worked there as well.

To reproduce I uninstalled both and did a fresh install of thunderbird. The file manger does not work. After installing Mailspring the filemanager does not work in thunderbird directly. Only after creating one mail and open the attachment window in mailspring it starts working in Thunderbird as well. And even after uninstalling mailspring it continues working in thunderbird.

???