Thunderbird
- Introduction
- Configuration
- Using Thunderbird
- "Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding"
Introduction
Thunderbird is a supported email program in the CMS (on Linux, Windows and Mac). To launch it under Linux, go to Applications -> Internet -> Thunderbird email, or type thunderbird & at the command line. Below are some tips on using Thunderbird and some links to further information.
Configuration
On the Windows desktops, you will be offered a choice of mail servers when using Thunderbird for the first time. To re-create your Thunderbird profile from scratch, choose "Mozilla Thunderbird Delete Maths Profile" (under "All Programs" in the Start menu).
Note: The above will configure Thunderbird correctly for your personal account. However, many administrative staff also use Thunderbird for role accounts. If you are missing a role account you should have access to, please consult help@maths.
On the Ubuntu Linux desktops, Thunderbird is preconfigured for ExOL users. If you use one of the other Maths email systems, the server names are different but most of the settings are the same.
This page on reading email from home lists the mail servers.
Helpful links if you need to configure Thunderbird yourself:
Using Thunderbird
Checking your email
Thunderbird will automatically check for new email messages every so often. The frequency of this can be changed by choosing Edit > Account Settings... from the menu bar and then choosing Server Settings.
Selecting the Get Mail button forces thunderbird to check for new messages.
Sending email
Select the Write button from the toolbar - this is below Edit. A new window will open allowing you to type your message.
You can also select File > New > Message from the menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-M to compose a new message.
Address book
Thunderbird can search the central University directory for email addresses. If you would rather search just people in DAMTP, rather than the whole university then add (InstID=DAMTP) to the Search filter.
To find the Search filter, open the Address Book, right-click on the University Directory, select Properties and go to the Advanced tab.
To search the whole University it is (objectclass=*).
To search only DAMTP it is (&(objectclass=*)(instID=DAMTP)).
External link
"Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding"
Thunderbird closed unexpectedly (maybe due to a power cut) and now won't open. It gives an error along the lines of "Thunderbird is already running, but not responding. To open a new window you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or restart your system".
To fix this problem you need first to kill any remaining Thunderbird processes and then to delete any lock files.
killall thunderbird killall thunderbird-bin killall -9 thunderbird killall -9 thunderbird-bin ps uxwww | grep "[t]hunderbird"
If there are any thunderbird processes left, reboot the computer before going on to the next stage.
Next, run the command unlock-thunderbird or clean up the lock files manually as follows.
cd ~/.thunderbird
find . -name lock -exec rm -i '{}' \;
find . -name .parentlock -exec rm -i '{}' \;
