Fixing Skype / Thunderbird / Google Earth connection with Firefox.

[AndrzejL]

Disclaimer:

*** IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW MY HOW-TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE FOLLOWING IT TO THE WORD ***

I know that this application works. I have been using / testing it for long time before I wrote this howto.

If its not working for you let me know but expect that the first question always will be "Did you do exactly what I wrote?"

Sometimes the applications can be problematic. When I am writing a howto it means 3 things:

1) I am using this application myself for a longer period of time.
2) I am recommending it to You as something that works under the condition of following my exact directions.
3) I got rid of the problems by using workarounds and the application works as a charm for me.

Andy

*** TRY READING BOTH PARTS AS THE SECOND PART IS MORE RECENT AND FIXED MORE MACHINES SO FAR ***

Hi all .

I have noticed some of our folks are having issues with connection between Skype / Google Earth / Mozilla Thunderbird (and possibly other applications) and the Mozilla Firefox browser. I have found a solution for it.

Please open console and type in:

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su [ENTER]

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roots password [ENTER]

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mkdir /usr/lib/firefox [ENTER]

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ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /usr/lib/firefox/firefox [ENTER]

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ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /bin/pclinuxos-mozilla-firefox [ENTER]

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exit [ENTER]

Console output should look similar to this:

[andrzejl@WISHMACER ~]$ su
Password:
[root@WISHMACER andrzejl]# mkdir /usr/lib/firefox
[root@WISHMACER andrzejl]# ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
[root@WISHMACER andrzejl]# ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /bin/pclinuxos-mozilla-firefox
[root@WISHMACER andrzejl]# exit
exit
[andrzejl@WISHMACER ~]$

When this is done close and reopen Skype / Google Earth / Mozilla Thunderbird or whatever the application was. Try opening any link...

Hope this helps...

Andy

[AndrzejL]

I used my own HOWTO yesterday on my fiance's 2009 MiniMe installation and it wouldn't work. Then I have found 2 or 3 topics on this forum where this problem was marked as [SOLVED] and... Nada. Zip. Zero. Big Bobkas... SO I kept messing around and... I got it to work.

Its easy. Follow me.

Open Thunderbird and then click on Edit > Preferences



Now a new window popped up. Click on the Advanced > General > Config Editor.



Click on I WILL BE CAREFULL I PROMISE! When the warning pops up.

Now in the Config Editor window find the Filter field.

Copy this code:

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network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http

and paste it into the Filter field. Notice that You have 2 entries left in the field below. Double click on each of them to change their value to TRUE (this will make the entries embolden too - its ok nothing to worry about.)



Close the Config Editor window. Go and find any e-mail containing a link to a www. If You don't have one... send one to Yourself... Click on that link. You will be presented with window which will look bit like this:



Now click on Choose button.

You will be presented with a new window. This will look something like this:



Now click on the File System in the pane on the left. This will give You new entries in the right pane of the window. Find usr folder and click on it. Now find bin folder and click on it. It may take a while to populate windows right pane this time as there are loads of files in this folder. For a moment Your window could look blank like this one here:



When the window is fully populated with files find the file Firefox and click on it. Then click OPEN button in the bottom right side of the window.



Now You will see that the window You have seen before has changed.



There is new entry called firefox in it. Click on it. Now mark the tick next to the Remember my choice for HTTP links and then click OK button in the bottom right hand side of this window.

Your page should now open in Mozilla Firefox. Tadaaaaaaaaaaa. Check more links. Close reopen and retry Thunderbird / Firefox link connection. Hope it works as You expected.

Hope this helps to everyone who had problems with opening links from Thunderbird in Firefox. Remember to click on a https link too and configure browse like explained above.

Andy

P.S. I believe it will work in both 2009 and 2010 editions of PCLinuxOS (no matter what desktop environment) and if Thunderbird will be pointed to some other browser executable (like chromium, opera etc.) this could be used for setting other browsers as well (although I have never tested it so I can't be sure).