Install Thunderbird 3 on Ubuntu
Finally, Thunderbird 3 was released with many new and interesting features (read more about the new features here) but it doesn’t contain .deb package for easy one click installation on Ubuntu. Well, we gonna fix that with this easy 2 steps install tutorial:
1.Download Thunderbird 3 in your home/username folder (Default download is in home/username/downloads/ so after downloading copy the file in home/username folder)
2.Next, Open terminal and copy/paste(Shift+Ctrl+V) the next line into it:
if [[ ! -f /usr/bin/thunderbird ]]; then sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install thunderbird; fi && if [[ -e ~/.mozilla-thunderbird ]]; then cp -R ~/.mozilla-thunderbird ~/.mozilla-thunderbird.backup; fi && if [[ -e ~/.thunderbird ]]; then cp -R ~/.thunderbird ~/.thunderbird.backup; fi && sudo tar -jxvf thunderbird-3*.tar.bz2 -C /opt && sudo dpkg-divert –divert /usr/bin/thunderbird.ubuntu –rename /usr/bin/thunderbird && sudo ln – s /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird && sudo dpkg- divert –divert /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird.ubuntu –rename /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird && sudo ln -s /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird
And that’s it. This will update your repository, check if any version of Thunderbird is installed and install it while you are enjoying in a nice cup of coffee. 
If you have any errors post a comment so we can fix it
Tags | Howto, Linux, Newbie Ubuntu Tips, Tutorials, Ubuntu
Hi, I pasted the following code from above:
if [[ ! -f /usr/bin/thunderbird ]]; then sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install thunderbird; fi && if [[ -e ~/.mozilla-thunderbird ]]; then cp -R ~/.mozilla-thunderbird ~/.mozilla-thunderbird.backup; fi && if [[ -e ~/.thunderbird ]]; then cp -R ~/.thunderbird ~/.thunderbird.backup; fi && sudo tar -jxvf thunderbird-3*.tar.bz2 -C /opt && sudo dpkg-divert –divert /usr/bin/thunderbird. ubuntu –rename /usr/bin/thunderbird && sudo ln – s /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird && sudo dpkg- divert –divert /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird.ubuntu –rename /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird && sudo ln -s /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird
I'm fairly new to ubuntu, though I briefly ran Gutsy Gibbon. I tried fixing the line "sudo dpkg-divert –divert /usr/bin/thunderbird. ubuntu" by removing the extra space before "ubuntu". This seemed to work.
However, I then received this error: "ln: target `/usr/bin/thunderbird' is not a directory"
Advice?
Cool software, i also use thunderbird 3 on Windows. I don't use ubuntu, but from your post i whink it's complicated to install a software on ubuntu isn't it?
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How exactly would I undo the above command? I kinda stuffed up Thunderbird, and it doesn't work whenever I click it. The only way for me to open it is by typing in "mozilla-thunderbird" into the command line
hey i pasted the code and it did everything but at the end it said:" E: Could not get lock /var/cache/apt/archives/lock – open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the download directory"
what do i do?
Hi Hassan
Make sure no other installations are running at the same time (like Synaptic Package manager or Ubuntu update).
Hope this helps
Judy