MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:40 pm**

Hello,

I installed MX 21 onto my laptop (all details below) that had been running Mint and I have noticed a very nice improvement in speed through my use (perhaps do to a lower number of procs running?) so it seems to be a bit of a 'keeper'.

But, I have a years-old Thunderbird store that I had to reuse but could not because of a version conflict as MX has v78 in it's repos and Mint is up to v100+. I went to Mozilla's site, downloaded the latest TBird and installed via dpkg and no problem. Works fine. However, in any package upgrades, MX wants to 'upgrade' my version of TBird from (1:102.4.0-1~deb11u1 => 2:78.13.0-1mx21+1) and this would put me back in the same situation as far as usability of TBird is concerned.

How can I handle the upgrade problem or mark TBird to be ignored during upgrades or will MX be upgrading TBird in its repos soon?

Thank you in advance!
Dan

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System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-19-amd64 [5.10.149-2] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-19-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.2.1_x64 Wildflower September 18  2022 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A314-32 v: V1.24 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: GLK model: Bulbasaur_GL v: V1.24 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.24 
           date: 09/15/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 22.6 Wh (93.4%) condition: 24.2/37.0 Wh (65.3%) volts: 8.3 min: 7.7 
           model: PANASONIC AP16M5J type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Celeron N4100 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Goldmont Plus 
           family: 6 model-id: 7A (122) stepping: 1 microcode: 3A cache: L2: 4 MiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 8755 
           Speed: 1139 MHz min/max: 800/2400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1139 2: 1096 3: 1201 
           4: 1105 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel GeminiLake [UHD Graphics 600] vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3185 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Quanta VGA WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-7:4 chip-ID: 0408:a031 
           class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter> 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: 
           loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0") 
           s-diag: 414mm (16.3") 
           Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 112 size: 309x173mm (12.2x6.8") 
           diag: 354mm (13.9") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 600 (GLK 2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.5 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor High Definition Audio 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci bus-ID: 00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:3198 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-19-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 1000 bus-ID: 02:00.1 
           chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lite-On 
           driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel modules: wl port: 1000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0042 
           class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Lite-On Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
           bus-ID: 1-5:3 chip-ID: 04ca:3015 class-ID: e001 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 7 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2 
           sub-v: 25a hci-v: 4.2 
           Info: acl-mtu: 1024:8 sco-mtu: 50:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff 
           link-mode: slave accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 223.57 GiB used: 150.32 GiB (67.2%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: A-Data model: SU630 size: 223.57 GiB block-size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 129a 
           scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 32 GiB size: 31.45 GiB (98.28%) used: 10.18 GiB (32.4%) fs: ext2 
           dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 288 KiB (0.1%) 
           fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 182.1 GiB size: 178.18 GiB (97.85%) used: 140.14 GiB (78.6%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 7.7 MiB (0.1%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Packages: 2078 note: see --pkg apt: 2073 lib: 1051 flatpak: 5 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           3: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
           4: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-backports main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb https://mirror.jingk.ai/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 287 Uptime: 2d 23h 24m wakeups: 2 Memory: 11.52 GiB used: 5.75 GiB (49.9%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

Posted: **Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:13 pm**

We have Thunderbird 2:102.4-0 in the MX Test Repo which won't have that problem. Use the MX Test Repo tab in MX Package Installer to update.

Posted: **Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:55 pm**

How about excluding Thunderbird from apt-upgrade as follows?

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apt-mark hold thunderbird

You can still get automatic updates by the upstream support.
See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ma ... rd-updates

In order to disable the above setting, just execute:

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apt-mark unhold thunderbird

Posted: **Mon Nov 14, 2022 4:29 am**

@lachelp

The problem you are struggling with is this:
MX-21 does have Thunderbird 102 in its repos. But only in the test repo. Since MX does not automatically update programmes from the test repo, but only those from the stable repo, MX wants to downgrade each time.

However, there is a way to get MX to automatically update certain programmes from the test repo. (Or as alternative you could take the version from debian):

Maybe this theread helps:
https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 61#p629361
(It's an old post, so you have to replace v78 through v102 when reading.)

So I would suggest to uninstall the version from Mozilla's site and then take one of the ways from the link above.
1. Ether enabling the possibility to automatically update to version 102 from Debian.
2. Or enabling the possibility to automatically update to version 102 from MX-test-Repo.

Posted: **Mon Nov 14, 2022 6:01 am**

Just as an aside to anyone who is considering a newer Thunderbird version - if you use the Address Book feature, use the Export feature to backup up your contacts first. I failed to do that, and lost all my contacts. A web search revealed it was a common happening.

I recovered mine from a TB install on another machine, but otherwise there are a lot of hoops to jump through.

Chris

Posted: **Sun Dec 11, 2022 3:31 pm**

Just curious what is the process of getting a given app to be considered for movement from the Test Repo to the main repository and inclusion into the current ISO?

Thunderbird version 78 is getting more than a bit long in the tooth both, security and feature-wise. Yes, timewise it is short, Thunderbird ESR 78.13 (Package Version: 2:78.13.0-1mx21+1) was released by Mozilla on August 10th, 2021.

I have been watching Dev Michael's posts about upgrading the TB in the Test Repo to more recent Thunderbirds as time went on. All were mainstream releases, none were subsequent ESR releases of Thunderbird. Searches to answer why here in this forum don't clarify why 78 is still 'the one' in the Main Repo.

My main PC is currently on Thunderbird version 102.3 from Test Repo. Periodically when MX Test had a newer version I ran the upgrade. Did I need a new feature? Nope! Shinney penny effect mostly....if it was there I wanted it. That said version 102.x has been working fine for me, but I know I am not exercising more than a sub-set of its feature offering.

OK, this old man gonna stop babbling!

Posted: **Sun Dec 11, 2022 4:47 pm**

The problem with Thunderbird is that their updates shortly after each of our last two major releases broke features. T-bird also made changes which prevented a newer profile from being usable by an older version, so your email experience gets degraded and it's hard to recover from. We're understandably leery of pushing updates that break users email experience so we don't. We make the newer versions available in Test but don't push them to main.

To be fair, those T-bird features didn't stay broken for too long (on a new or already updated T-bird install), but upgrading from the version on the iso to their new version still caused problems.

And the option of uninstalling our version and using Thunderbird's download with its own update mechanism has always been available.

Posted: **Sun Dec 11, 2022 6:40 pm**

@lachelp I run the same version of Tbird (102+) on both Mint and MX. I simply copied the mint .thunderbird hidden directory to both setups and everything is synced and identical (fwiw I keep my local files in a Dropbox folder so everything is identical). I just don't run both T'bird setups at the same time.... wait a few minutes while Dropbox syncs.

Posted: **Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:58 pm**

timkb4cq wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 4:47 pm The problem with Thunderbird is that their updates shortly after each of our last two major releases broke features. T-bird also made changes which prevented a newer profile from being usable by an older version, so your email experience gets degraded and it's hard to recover from. We're understandably leery of pushing updates that break users email experience so we don't.

Totally understandable given that scenario - agree it has a higher-than-normal potential to derail new Linux/Thunderbird users.

Being a retired email server guy I'm likely forgetting how tech challenges those not in IT. I've gotten used to 2 backups in two different places, make the changes and then test.

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2022 12:09 am**

timkb4cq wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 4:47 pm ... T-bird also made changes which prevented a newer profile from being usable by an older version, so your email experience gets degraded and it's hard to recover from.
...

Before trying the "trick" below, make sure to back up your user's .thunderbird directory. A a simple way to do this from the commandline as an ordinary user is "cp -a ~/.thunderbird ~/.thunderbird.bak" so if the new Thunderbird mangles your profile, you can put it back the way it was before mucking about.

I was able to get (force) new Thunderbird to import an older, not-compatible profile by doing the following in the terminal after installing the newer version, but before running it from the desktop. Before installing the new version (102) from the test repo (or any other source), make sure Thunderbird is NOT running.

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thunderbird -P

This brings up the Thundrebird profile manager. When you do that, carefully select your old profile and go. In a perfect world, Thunderbird will import compatible portions of your old profile which should include all your email account settings and old mail. I have done this twice some months ago without any apparent long-term unintended consequences. Before doing anything, make that backup.

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