Manually installing Mozilla Sunbird 0.9 onto Linpus

I wanted to use Mozilla Sunbird for better integration with Google Calendar. It's not presently included in an RPM package so I adapted instructions I found for installing Firebird (see here)

My instructions are as follows:

Browse to http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/
Select the appropriate link to download the Linux x86 English version
Open a terminal session (e.g. by pressing alt+F2 and typing 'xterm')
Navigate to the downloaded file e.g. cd ~/Downloads
Gunzip it e.g.

Code:

$gunzip sunbird-0.9.en-US.linux-i686.tar.gz

Create target directory for install e.g.

Code:

$sudo mkdir /opt/sunbird

Change to the target directory for install e.g.

Code:

$cd /opt/sunbird

Extract contents of the tar file to /opt/sunbird e.g.

Code:

$sudo tar xvf ~/Downloads/sunbird-0.9.en-US.linux-i686.tar  

Link to bin directory e.g.

Code:

$sudo ln -fs /opt/sunbird/sunbird /usr/bin/sb

The following steps are to add a desktop icon:

Code:

$sudo cp /usr/share/applications/acercalendar.desktop /usr/share/applications/sb.desktop
$sudo sed -e'/Exec/cExec=sb' -e'/Icon/cIcon=sb' -i /usr/share/applications/sb.desktop
$dca add 11 "file='/usr/share/applications/sb.desktop'"

Now finally to add the icon file:

Browse to http://www.iconspedia.com/icon/mozilla- ... -2021.html
Download the 256x256px PNG icon file
Copy and resize the icon file e.g.

Code:

$sudo convert -resize 152x152 ~/Downloads/Sunbird_256.png /usr/share/pixmaps/sb.png

Job done.
I did a restart after making these changes, but I'm not entirely sure it was necessary.

Hope you find this useful. I would recommend backing up your system as you see fit prior to making these changes. If you are more Linux orientated then I am, you might very well be able to improve upon this.

Thanks
Ed

 

As an alternative to this, Thunderbird (Mozilla's email software) is in the repositories so can be installed using add/remove software; the combination of the Lightning and Google Calendar add-ons (downloadable within Thunderbird, I think: I've forgotten quite how I installed them now!) provides Google Calendar functionality within Thunderbird.

 

Incidentally, Sunbird and Lightning are supposed to be practically identical products, it's just one integrates into thunderbird. Depends how you like to organise yourself. I like the sunbird approach myself.

 

Agreed.

I didn't go the Thunderbird route because I use web based mail, and having one redundant email client installed seemed enough

 

I followed your instructions and now have everything but the icon actually opening sunbird. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

JB

 

You ought to now have an entry in your group-app.xml file. Do

Code:

sudo mousepad /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml 

to bring it up and edit if needed.
Go and see if there's a entry for sb.desktop
If there is, please post it here so we can check if it's correct.
Also, go check that sb.desktop exists. Use

Code:

sudo mousepad /usr/share/applications/sb.desktop

 

The icon is there on the desktop, the problem is that it's not opening the program. Here is the line from group-app.xml:

<app sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/sb.desktop</app></group>

I can open sunbird by navigating to its folder and double clicking sunbird.

Thank you again for your help!
JB

 

OK, go look at the sb.desktop file (last command in my previous post). Look for the exec= line - it likely says exec=sb

The part after the exec= is the actual command to launch sunbird. Go put whatever it is into the terminal (so if it's exec=sub, then type sb into the terminal) If it doesn't launch, then we've narrowed the problem down - your exec command is bust! If so, check if you successfully did the line from the op " sudo ln -fs /opt/sunbird/sunbird /usr/bin/sb".
This creates a link from sunbird (what you can click on to get it to launch) to a command called sb.
If this is what's broken, and repeating the line fixes it, then great. If not, you could try adding the full path /opt/sunbird/sunbird into your exec= line instead.

Hope that gets us somewhere.