On 12.07.2014 02:27, Rolf Turner wrote: > So how might I upgrade to the latest version? I must confess that I am > running a very elderly version of Fedora (17, to be explicit). I don't > dare try to upgrade my Fedora version, given what I have read on this > list about the problems that are involved with such upgrades. I cannot > afford to be stuck with a broken system. I am not sufficiently > knowledgeable to be able to fix a broken system and I have no local > resources to give me assistance. > > Would I need a more recent version of Fedora in order to get a more > recent version of Thunderbird to run? Get CentOS 7 Now https://www.centos.org/download/ CentOS mailing list http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos poma

On 07/13/2014 08:53 AM, Ralf Corsepius wrote: > Sometimes, thunderbird becomes non-reactive for minutes longer periods > (several minutes), but is back afterwards. Next time that happens, run top to see if it's working its little ass off or just taking a nap.

On 13/07/14 09:11, poma wrote: <SNIP> >>> Always try to contact the admins if there are problems. >>> It is always good practice. >> >> I have in the past not found the U. of Auckland IT people to be very >> helpful. They don't like the fact that I am using my own laptop on >> which I have superuser privileges and am thus not under their complete >> control. Also they are Windoze oriented, with Ubuntu insisted upon if >> one insists on running Linux. Fedora is a no-no. >> >> cheers, >> >> Rolf Turner >> > > Théâtre de l'Absurde. Indeed. > BTW I see you've solved it with the TBird upgrade, however man, > do not stay on Fedora 17, upgrade or start fresh with the CentOS, really. Well, I have managed to upgrade Thunderbird, modulo a wee glitch (which may be irrelevant anyway) with which Ed Greshko may be able to help me. It remains to be seen whether this will have any impact upon the "subscribe" problems that I have from time to time. (I am inclined to doubt it.) I agree that I should upgrade or move to CentOS. I like the latter idea; if I understand correctly what I read on this list, CentOS is more stable and less demanding. I hesitate to do such a "radical" thing however lest I break something and leave myself essentially bereft of computer. I can't afford to do that. As I have said a couple of times previously, I have insufficient knowledge of Linux myself and have no local resources to draw on to compensate for this insufficiency. In particular, installing a new OS or upgrading an old one often seems to involve mucking about with "partitions" of the hard drive. I don't grok partitions and when I get called upon, by an installer program, to make some choice in respect of partitions I collapse in terror lest my choice causes some vital part of the file system to be erased. cheers, Rolf Turner

On Sat, 2014-07-12 at 12:46 +0200, Ralf Corsepius wrote: >> You might want to try and find out if those times coincide with your >> system operators restoring a backup to their drives. Some SysOps do > a >> really half-arsed job at restore and backup, mangling things > terribly. > > Though I am not experiencing the OP's issue, I am also experiencing > thunderbird IMAP access issues. ATM I suspect (Note: Wild guess, no > proof!) to be related to systemd and NetworkManager restarts, esp. > upon > updates. Have you tried connecting to the same IMAP server with a different client, e.g. Evolution, Mutt, Claws, ...?

On 12/07/14 17:41, poma wrote: > On 12.07.2014 06:51, Rolf Turner wrote: > ... >> ***Is*** there anything that can be done about it? If so, what? Please >> keep it simple and explicit, if you would be so kind. I need a *recipe* >> --- "Do this, and then this, and then this ...." I understand a fair >> bit of Linux jargon, but there is a *HUGE* amount that I don't >> understand, so please phrase things in a way that a non-techie might be >> able to follow. > ... > > Looks like you're in a love affair with this list, however. > > In fact the only real help is on this page > http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/it-essentials/help/ic-helpdesk > > Always try to contact the admins if there are problems. > It is always good practice. I have in the past not found the U. of Auckland IT people to be very helpful. They don't like the fact that I am using my own laptop on which I have superuser privileges and am thus not under their complete control. Also they are Windoze oriented, with Ubuntu insisted upon if one insists on running Linux. Fedora is a no-no. cheers, Rolf Turner

On 12.07.2014 06:51, Rolf Turner wrote: ... > ***Is*** there anything that can be done about it? If so, what? Please > keep it simple and explicit, if you would be so kind. I need a *recipe* > --- "Do this, and then this, and then this ...." I understand a fair > bit of Linux jargon, but there is a *HUGE* amount that I don't > understand, so please phrase things in a way that a non-techie might be > able to follow. ... Looks like you're in a love affair with this list, however. In fact the only real help is on this page http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/it-essentials/help/ic-helpdesk Always try to contact the admins if there are problems. It is always good practice.

Allegedly, on or about 12 July 2014, Rolf Turner sent: > (1) From time to time, for no reason that I can discern, Thunderbird > spontaneously unsubscribes all (or perhaps most of) my email folders > and subfolders. You might want to try and find out if those times coincide with your system operators restoring a backup to their drives. Some SysOps do a really half-arsed job at restore and backup, mangling things terribly.

(1) From time to time, for no reason that I can discern, Thunderbird spontaneously unsubscribes all (or perhaps most of) my email folders and subfolders.

***Is*** there anything that can be done about it? If so, what? Please keep it simple and explicit, if you would be so kind. I need a *recipe* --- "Do this, and then this, and then this ...." I understand a fair bit of Linux jargon, but there is a *HUGE* amount that I don't understand, so please phrase things in a way that a non-techie might be able to follow.

On 12/07/14 14:44, Ed Greshko wrote: <SNIP> >>>> P. S. I am running Thunderbird 17.0.7, if that is of any relevance. >>>> >>> >>> It should not matter....but that is a very old version. >> >> So how might I upgrade to the latest version? I must confess that >> Iam running a very elderly version of Fedora (17, to be explicit). I >> don't dare try to upgrade my Fedora version, given what I have read on >> this list about the problems that are involved with such upgrades. I >> cannot afford to be stuck with a broken system. I am not sufficiently >> knowledgeable to be able to fix a broken system and I have no local >> resources to give me assistance. >> >> Would I need a more recent version of Fedora in order to get a >> morerecent version of Thunderbird to run? > > Since F17 is EOL you can't update from the Fedora Repos. You'd have > toinstall the latest version after downloading from Mozilla's website. Just tried to do that. I: * downloaded the tarball thunderbird-24.6.0.tar.bz2 * unpacked it, getting a directory "thunderbird" * put this into /usr/lib64, which is where the thunderbird directory for my 17.0.7 version lived * tried to start thunderbird * got the error message > XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib64/thunderbird/libxul.so: > libdbus-glib-1.so.2: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 > Couldn't load XPCOM. Naturally I have no idea what this really means, or what if anything can be done about it. ***Is*** there anything that can be done about it? If so, what? Please keep it simple and explicit, if you would be so kind. I need a *recipe* --- "Do this, and then this, and then this ...." I understand a fair bit of Linux jargon, but there is a *HUGE* amount that I don't understand, so please phrase things in a way that a non-techie might be able to follow. For the moment I have put the old version 17.0.7 thunderbird directory (of which I had very cleverly --- :-) --- kept a copy) back in place, and that version of thunderbird runs with no more problems than it ever had. Thanks for any tips. cheers, Rolf Turner

So how might I upgrade to the latest version? I must confess that I am running a very elderly version of Fedora (17, to be explicit). I don't dare try to upgrade my Fedora version, given what I have read on this list about the problems that are involved with such upgrades. I cannot afford to be stuck with a broken system. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to fix a broken system and I have no local resources to give me assistance. Would I need a more recent version of Fedora in order to get a more recent version of Thunderbird to run?

On 12/07/14 12:14, Ed Greshko wrote: > On 07/12/14 07:54, Rolf Turner wrote: >> >> This is of course not a Fedora issue as such, but I have tried hard and without success to find answers elsewhere. And since this list has so many contributors who are *so* knowledgeable (abrasive, cranky, cryptic, but above all *knowledgeable*) I thought I would ask here. >> >> The question is actually two-fold: >> >> (1) From time to time, for no reason that I can discern, Thunderbird spontaneously unsubscribes all (or perhaps most of) my email folders and subfolders. >> >> I can of course re-subscribe to them, but since I have a rather large number of folders and subfolders (and subsubfolders ...) this is a lengthy and tedious task. >> >> Has anyone any insight into why this unsubscription phenomenon should occur and how one might prevent it from occurring? >> >> (2) Failing the last, is there any way to *speed up* the process of re-subscribing? I would like a way of essentially subscribing to *everything*, with a single click (or something like that) and then be able to go through and unsubscribe to those relatively few folders to which I do not wish to subscribe. >> >> Groping around on the web I found a way to bypass the "subscribe" system. One goes to Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> Advanced, and then unchecks "Show only subscribed folders". >> >> This is not too bad, but it leaves me with a number of bits of crap in my folder list that I *do not* wish to see. Things that Thunderbird imposes on the user, like "Journal", "Junk E-Mail", "Notes", "Sent Items", "Sent Messages", etc. (The last two really puzzle me; what function might they serve that is different from the function of the "Sent" folder?) It seems to be impossible to get rid of these, and the only way to mask them is to unsubscribe. But then I need to *subscribe* to all of the stuff that I *do* want to see. >> >> Grateful for any insight or advice. > > Are you talking about imap folders? If so, the subscription information is kept on the server side. So, for example, when I use T-Bird on a Virtual Machine and define my existing email account all my subscribed folders are displayed. That is the way IMAP works. This way any IMAP client show show the same information making it easy to move from system to system and have access to the same information. > > Is your IMAP server under your control? I don't *think* it is under my control. The server is run by the University of Auckland and is presumably under the control of the U. of A. IT department. Who are, of course, a law unto themselves. :-) > >> >> cheers, >> >> Rolf Turner >> >> P. S. I am running Thunderbird 17.0.7, if that is of any relevance. >> > > It should not matter....but that is a very old version. So how might I upgrade to the latest version? I must confess that I am running a very elderly version of Fedora (17, to be explicit). I don't dare try to upgrade my Fedora version, given what I have read on this list about the problems that are involved with such upgrades. I cannot afford to be stuck with a broken system. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to fix a broken system and I have no local resources to give me assistance. Would I need a more recent version of Fedora in order to get a more recent version of Thunderbird to run? > No matter what version I've used, I've not had any problems in that area. Hmm. As usual, the universe seems to be picking on *me*! :-) cheers, Rolf

On 07/12/14 07:54, Rolf Turner wrote: > > This is of course not a Fedora issue as such, but I have tried hard and without success to find answers elsewhere. And since this list has so many contributors who are *so* knowledgeable (abrasive, cranky, cryptic, but above all *knowledgeable*) I thought I would ask here. > > The question is actually two-fold: > > (1) From time to time, for no reason that I can discern, Thunderbird spontaneously unsubscribes all (or perhaps most of) my email folders and subfolders. > > I can of course re-subscribe to them, but since I have a rather large number of folders and subfolders (and subsubfolders ...) this is a lengthy and tedious task. > > Has anyone any insight into why this unsubscription phenomenon should occur and how one might prevent it from occurring? > > (2) Failing the last, is there any way to *speed up* the process of re-subscribing? I would like a way of essentially subscribing to *everything*, with a single click (or something like that) and then be able to go through and unsubscribe to those relatively few folders to which I do not wish to subscribe. > > Groping around on the web I found a way to bypass the "subscribe" system. One goes to Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> Advanced, and then unchecks "Show only subscribed folders". > > This is not too bad, but it leaves me with a number of bits of crap in my folder list that I *do not* wish to see. Things that Thunderbird imposes on the user, like "Journal", "Junk E-Mail", "Notes", "Sent Items", "Sent Messages", etc. (The last two really puzzle me; what function might they serve that is different from the function of the "Sent" folder?) It seems to be impossible to get rid of these, and the only way to mask them is to unsubscribe. But then I need to *subscribe* to all of the stuff that I *do* want to see. > > Grateful for any insight or advice. Are you talking about imap folders? If so, the subscription information is kept on the server side. So, for example, when I use T-Bird on a Virtual Machine and define my existing email account all my subscribed folders are displayed. That is the way IMAP works. This way any IMAP client show show the same information making it easy to move from system to system and have access to the same information. Is your IMAP server under your control?

> > cheers, > > Rolf Turner > > P. S. I am running Thunderbird 17.0.7, if that is of any relevance. > It should not matter....but that is a very old version.

No matter what version I've used, I've not had any problems in that area.

On 07/11/2014 04:54 PM, Rolf Turner issued this missive: > > This is of course not a Fedora issue as such, but I have tried hard and > without success to find answers elsewhere. And since this list has so > many contributors who are *so* knowledgeable (abrasive, cranky, cryptic, > but above all *knowledgeable*) I thought I would ask here. > > The question is actually two-fold: > > (1) From time to time, for no reason that I can discern, Thunderbird > spontaneously unsubscribes all (or perhaps most of) my email folders and > subfolders. > > I can of course re-subscribe to them, but since I have a rather large > number of folders and subfolders (and subsubfolders ...) this is a > lengthy and tedious task. > > Has anyone any insight into why this unsubscription phenomenon should > occur and how one might prevent it from occurring? > > (2) Failing the last, is there any way to *speed up* the process of > re-subscribing? I would like a way of essentially subscribing to > *everything*, with a single click (or something like that) and then be > able to go through and unsubscribe to those relatively few folders to > which I do not wish to subscribe. > > Groping around on the web I found a way to bypass the "subscribe" > system. One goes to Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> > Advanced, and then unchecks "Show only subscribed folders". > > This is not too bad, but it leaves me with a number of bits of crap in > my folder list that I *do not* wish to see. Things that Thunderbird > imposes on the user, like "Journal", "Junk E-Mail", "Notes", "Sent > Items", "Sent Messages", etc. (The last two really puzzle me; what > function might they serve that is different from the function of the > "Sent" folder?) It seems to be impossible to get rid of these, and the > only way to mask them is to unsubscribe. But then I need to *subscribe* > to all of the stuff that I *do* want to see. > > Grateful for any insight or advice. I'm running Thunderbird 24.5.0. I haven't seen this issue, but I don't subscribe to a ton of folders, either (I think I have about 14 on the server, probably 20 or so local folders). Is it possible that it's your IMAP server that's dropping your subscriptions?

This is of course not a Fedora issue as such, but I have tried hard and without success to find answers elsewhere. And since this list has so many contributors who are *so* knowledgeable (abrasive, cranky, cryptic, but above all *knowledgeable*) I thought I would ask here. The question is actually two-fold: (1) From time to time, for no reason that I can discern, Thunderbird spontaneously unsubscribes all (or perhaps most of) my email folders and subfolders. I can of course re-subscribe to them, but since I have a rather large number of folders and subfolders (and subsubfolders ...) this is a lengthy and tedious task. Has anyone any insight into why this unsubscription phenomenon should occur and how one might prevent it from occurring? (2) Failing the last, is there any way to *speed up* the process of re-subscribing? I would like a way of essentially subscribing to *everything*, with a single click (or something like that) and then be able to go through and unsubscribe to those relatively few folders to which I do not wish to subscribe. Groping around on the web I found a way to bypass the "subscribe" system. One goes to Edit -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> Advanced, and then unchecks "Show only subscribed folders". This is not too bad, but it leaves me with a number of bits of crap in my folder list that I *do not* wish to see. Things that Thunderbird imposes on the user, like "Journal", "Junk E-Mail", "Notes", "Sent Items", "Sent Messages", etc. (The last two really puzzle me; what function might they serve that is different from the function of the "Sent" folder?) It seems to be impossible to get rid of these, and the only way to mask them is to unsubscribe. But then I need to *subscribe* to all of the stuff that I *do* want to see. Grateful for any insight or advice.