Ubuntu – Thunderbird uses the wrong browser

11.10browserthunderbird

I'm unable to make Thunderbird open the default browser.

In the browser preferences, Chromium is selected as the default browser. It's also selected in "Default Applications" in System Settings.

In Thunderbird, I read "Chrome (Default)" which is wrong on all levels:

Chrome itself complains that it's not the default browser when I click a link inside Thunderbird.
In all other places, that I could find, Chromium is the default

Here is what I tried:

I used update-alternatives --config x-www-browser to select chromium-browser as well (see How do I change the default browser?).
And even when I select a different browser from the list in the Thunderbird preferences, it still opens Chrome.

My current solution is to create a link from /usr/bin/google-chrome to chromium-browser.

How can I force Thunderbird to use the browser I want???

EDIT I also updated gnome-www-browser (update-alternatives --config gnome-www-browser) after feedback from roadmr but that didn't help. At least sensible-browser opens Chromium, now, but Thunderbird is stubborn.

Best Answer

I found the last step missing. You have to go to Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Config Editor and change options

network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http
network.protocol-handler.warn-external.https

to user-defined. Next time when you open a link it will ask you about which browser do you want, and then type /usr/bin/x-www-browser.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to make Thunderbird open links in Chromium

This is what I found working for me: You will need to access the "config editor" in Thunderbird itself.

Open Thunderbird. In 24.6.0, the menu can be accessed on the right hand side of the top menu bar (next to the search bar and is represented by three horizontal lines).

Click Edit > then click Preferences >, a new window will open. You will need to select the Advanced tab, at the bottom of that tab Open the Config Editor.

Then, search for both network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http and network.protocol-handler.warn-external.https.

These two are most likely to have a current value of false. Change the value to true (do this by simply right clicking on them) and the next time you try to open a link from some e-mail it'll ask you which browser to use. Chromium isn't likely to be shown in the list of choices, so use the navigate button. You can find Chromium at /usr/bin/chromium-browser.

If using google chrome as your browser of choice you may want to make it /usr/bin/google-chrome or /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable If Thunderbird doesn't ask you which browser to use when you click on a link after doing this, you can try deleting mimeTypes.rdf file in your profile folder to reset it. The profile folder is typically found as ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default/

Original text by Htbaa

Ubuntu – What’s the difference between x-www-browser and gnome-www-browser

Both are scripts that, when configured by update-alternatives, call the default application for internet browsing on a GUI environment.

The script x-www-browser calls the application configured to run on any desktop environment that runs under X Server, while gnome-www-browser application configured specifically calls for GNOME. Similarly, www-browser is a script to call the default browser on a TUI (text-based user interface) environment, such as w3m or elinks, for example.

You can check which browser they are associated with the commands

update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser

To list all the alternatives to these scripts, use

update-alternatives --list x-www-browser
update-alternatives --list gnome-www-browser

To configure a default browser, use the commands

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser
sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-www-browser

Since these scripts can call different browsers, it may happen that a certain program call a browser other than the default browser. This often causes confusion for some users, but this issue can be fixed by running the command sudo update-alternatives --config as explained in item 3, above.

Sources:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to make Thunderbird open links in Chromium

Ubuntu – What’s the difference between x-www-browser and gnome-www-browser

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