firebrand wrote:
> I don't know what's happened, but Thunderbird won't let me compose
> emails anymore.

> Anyone got any ideas as to what I can do about this?

R&R

You could remove it and then replace it.

--
Mike Easter

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:46:59 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

> firebrand wrote:
>> I don't know what's happened, but Thunderbird won't let me compose
>> emails anymore.
>
>> Anyone got any ideas as to what I can do about this?
>
> R&R
>
> You could remove it and then replace it.

Yeah I guess I could. Though I'd much rather fix it; reinstallation of
software seems so Microsoftian.

But, unless anyone else has got a suggestion, R&R may be the route I'll
go.

--

"A little revolution now and then is a good thing; the tree of liberty
must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and
tyrants."
-Thomas Jefferson

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:00:13 +0100 (CET), firebrand wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:46:59 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:
>
> Yeah I guess I could. Though I'd much rather fix it; reinstallation of
> software seems so Microsoftian.
>
> But, unless anyone else has got a suggestion, R&R may be the route I'll
> go.

First figure out if it is a user problem or system problem.

Create a new account, say junk. Log into junk, set thunderbird prefs
like firebrand's and see if still broke. If so, I recommend
delete/install thunderbird.

If works in junk, then
rm -r .thunderbird
in firebrand's account.
Note the above wipes out all email in firebrand's .thunderbird
directory, address book,,,,.

Still broke,
rm -r .fullcircle
rm -r .thunderbird
Try thunderbird again.

Still broke,
rm -r .fullcircle
rm -r .mozilla
rm -r .thunderbird
Note the above wipes out firefox files (cookies, pw, book marks,,,,,)
Try thunderbird again.

firebrand wrote:
>
> I don't know what's happened, but Thunderbird won't let me compose emails
> anymore. Whether I click on 'Write', or 'Reply' to an email I've read, or
> I click on a 'mailto:' link and select 'Compose email to', the same thing
> happens - the 'Compose' window opens, there's nothing in the 'Subject:' or
> the 'To:' fields (even if I'm trying to reply to an email) and I can't
> type anything into any of the fields. When I click on the little 'x' in
> the corner of the window to close it, a dialogue comes up that 'Compose
> isn't responding' and I can wait or force quit... I have to force quit to
> get out of the frozen thing, and that's the end of Thunderbird.
>
> It's getting mail from my gmail and other accounts okay, and I can still
> read mail okay. It's just composing mail that seems to have screwed up,
> and like I said, I don't know why - I can't think of any event that may
> have caused this.
>
> Anyone got any ideas as to what I can do about this?
>
>
>

Here's a WAG - it sounds like you don't have write access to some
directory that is used while composing mail. I don't know why that
should be different from the one that you use to read and store mail,
but that would be my first guess. Check your config files - probably
prefs.js located in your account directory under ~/.thunderbird/

Report back!

JimR

On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:02 -0500, JimR wrote:

> firebrand wrote:
>>
>> I don't know what's happened, but Thunderbird won't let me compose
>> emails anymore. Whether I click on 'Write', or 'Reply' to an email
>> I've read, or I click on a 'mailto:' link and select 'Compose email
>> to', the same thing happens - the 'Compose' window opens, there's
>> nothing in the 'Subject:' or the 'To:' fields (even if I'm trying to
>> reply to an email) and I can't type anything into any of the fields.
>> When I click on the little 'x' in the corner of the window to close it,
>> a dialogue comes up that 'Compose isn't responding' and I can wait or
>> force quit... I have to force quit to get out of the frozen thing, and
>> that's the end of Thunderbird.
>>
>> It's getting mail from my gmail and other accounts okay, and I can
>> still read mail okay. It's just composing mail that seems to have
>> screwed up, and like I said, I don't know why - I can't think of any
>> event that may have caused this.
>>
>> Anyone got any ideas as to what I can do about this?
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Here's a WAG - it sounds like you don't have write access to some
> directory that is used while composing mail. I don't know why that
> should be different from the one that you use to read and store mail,
> but that would be my first guess. Check your config files - probably
> prefs.js located in your account directory under ~/.thunderbird/
>
> Report back!

I don't have a ~/.thunderbird directory... in fact, I look at my home
directory and I don't see *anything* that's readily identifiable as a
Thunderbird config file.

If anyone can tell me what the Thunderbird config files are called, I'll
be very appreciative.



--

"Think of the children! Won't somebody think of the children?!" - Moe

On Fri, 1 Feb 2008 19:02:20 +0100 (CET), firebrand wrote:
>
> I don't have a ~/.thunderbird directory... in fact, I look at my home
> directory and I don't see *anything* that's readily identifiable as a
> Thunderbird config file.
>
> If anyone can tell me what the Thunderbird config files are called, I'll
> be very appreciative.

$ cd ~/.thunderbird
$ ls *
appreg profiles.ini

vygwzfog.default:
abook.mab extensions.ini mailViews.dat US
blocklist.xml extensions.rdf mimeTypes.rdf virtualFolders.dat
cert8.db history.mab News XPC.mfasl
compatibility.ini key3.db panacea.dat xpti.dat
compreg.dat localstore.rdf prefs.js XUL.mfasl
extensions lock secmod.db
extensions.cache Mail signons.txt

On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:27:14 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

> On Fri, 1 Feb 2008 19:02:20 +0100 (CET), firebrand wrote:
>>
>> I don't have a ~/.thunderbird directory... in fact, I look at my home
>> directory and I don't see *anything* that's readily identifiable as a
>> Thunderbird config file.
>>
>> If anyone can tell me what the Thunderbird config files are called,
>> I'll be very appreciative.
>
> $ cd ~/.thunderbird
> $ ls *
> appreg profiles.ini
>
> vygwzfog.default:
> abook.mab extensions.ini mailViews.dat US blocklist.xml
> extensions.rdf mimeTypes.rdf virtualFolders.dat cert8.db
> history.mab News XPC.mfasl compatibility.ini key3.db
> panacea.dat xpti.dat compreg.dat localstore.rdf prefs.js
> XUL.mfasl extensions lock secmod.db
> extensions.cache Mail signons.txt

firebrand@ubuntu:~$ cd ~/.thunderbird
bash: cd: /home/firebrand/.thunderbird: No such file or directory
firebrand@ubuntu:~$

So, I guess I have to reinstall.

Thing is, I can't remember anything happening that would account for my
~/.thunderbird directory disappearing.

--

"When one burns books, one ends up burning people" - Heine

My friend could also not compose an email in thunderbird, so I fixed it for her. What I did was to change the file and directory permissions of her thunderbird directory:
From your home directory:
$ cd .thunderbird
in this directory, you should have a file profiles.ini
$ more profiles.ini
now you should see which directory thunderbird use, look at Path=yourdir.default in profiles.ini
$ chmod 777 yourdir.default
$ chmod 775 -R yourdir.default

Now restart thunderbird and you should be able to type in the body text.
You can also set in your Nautilus file browser, if you change View->Show Hidden Files, if you have a .thunderbird directory