Thunderbird: Default app used to open links in email

[vwgtiturbo]

I have been using Thunderbird .7.1 for a bit, and never really noticed until today, that, when I click on a link in an email, the link opens using Epiphany (or some other GNOME browser). Does anyone know how I can change this to Firefox? I tried doing it with the "File associations", associating both html files and urls with Firefox, but that did'nt work. I looked at editing my thunderbird prefs.js file, but there was nothing in there that looked like it would help... Thanks.

[gaxprels]

Since the app that's being run is a GNOME app, I'm going to assume you're using GNOME as a desktop. In that case you need to run GNOME's control panel (can't remember what it's called specifically as I haven't logged into my system with X in a long time... ssh is what I've been using to admin the system lately.) The GNOME control panel should give you the option to change the default browser to Firefox. (This is from memory, so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is what you need to do.)

[SkyNet]

Like gaxprels said, it can be done with GNOME, but that's if you use GNOME. That also only works in some cases.

Here's how you'd do that for all. Also this will also setup Firefox so when you click on mailto it will open up Thunderbird. vwgtiturbo, if you used linuxpackages.net to install your Firefox, and Thunderbird then this can be done without changing anything. Else you need to change the install path from /usr/lib/mozilla-* to whatever the install path is.

Create a file called mailto.sh in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox Make the file executable chmod +x mailto.sh
Edit the file to contain:

#!/bin/sh

url="$1"

export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird

if [ $(pidof thunderbird-bin | wc -w) -gt 0 ]; then

# Thunderbird is running
url=`echo "$url" | sed -e's/^mailto://'`
$MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME/thunderbird -remote "mailto($url)"

else

# Thunderbird is not running
$MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME/thunderbird -P default -compose $url
fi

Now go an downloaded the extension MozEX located here: MozEX
You'll also need Show Old Extensions located here: Show Old Extensions

Okay, after those are installed restart Mozilla-Firefox, and goto Tools -> Extensions -> mozex -> Preferences. Now check Intercept mailto: clicks and in the Mailer field insert: /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/mailto.sh %r

Now onto getting Thunderbird to load Firefox.

Create a file in /usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird called openlink.sh Make the file executable chmod +x openlink.sh
Edit that file to contain:

#!/bin/sh

export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME="/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox"

url="$1"
if [ "x$url" = "x" ]; then
url="about:blank"
fi

if $MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME/mozilla-xremote-client -a firefox openURL\("$url, new-tab"\); then
exit 0
fi
exec $MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME/firefox "$url"

After that create a file called user.js in /usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird
Edit the file to contain:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http","/usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird/openlink.sh");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https","/usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird/openlink.sh");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp","/usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird/openlink.sh");

That should do it. I'm sorry that this is so long, but right now it's the only way to do this. Hopefully by the time they reach 1.x status they will have simple fileds to enter your preferred browser without going through all this crap.

[vwgtiturbo]

Wow, that was awesome, Skynet. What else can I say?
So, I did all of the things you suggested, and here is how it turned out:
When I am surfing the web, and click a 'mailto:' link, my system now opens up a composition window in Thunderbird. This is good, as it would never do ANYTHING when I clicked a mail link before.
For some reason though, when I click a url in an email message, my system still opens up Epiphany (I am using KDE when I am not in runlevel 3... I forgot to mention that earlier).
I looked through the scripts you gave me, and everything seems to be in order. I will look again and see if something is awry.
Is any of this profile dependent? My Thunderbird profile is stored on a partition that I shared with Win, so I was just wondering if I needed to edit something in my profile... Beats me.
Thanks for the help guys.

[gaxprels]

If you are using KDE I believe KDE has a control panel for determining the default application for browsing the web as well. Look for that and try it?

I don't use KDE if I can help it, so I'm not much help here

Good luck

[vwgtiturbo]

Yeah, I tried that. That did work for HTML files and such on my desktop or when I am browsing my directories with Konqueror, but didn't help when I am trying to open a link from an email.
I associated html, HTML, htm, HTM, url, URL, etc. and it is still a no go...

[gaxprels]

No... what I mean is there should be a "Default Web Browser" setting some place. (Not just the association of .htm etc)

I could be wrong as I avoid KDE like the plague.

[vwgtiturbo]

I haven't seen it. I searched through the modules in the Control Center, with no luck. Just out of curiousity, why the extreme avoidance of KDE?

[SkyNet]

Ok, also stick that user.js file in .thunderbird/profilename. See if that solves your problem.

[gaxprels]

I'm just not as fond of KDE as I am GNOME... I don't know why, that's just my preference.