HOWTO Transition, Move, Migrate, Switch Thunderbird from Windows to Linux with Enigmail

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Please improve it in any way that you see fit, and remove this notice {{Cleanup}} from the article. For tips on cleaning and formatting see Cleanup process


[edit] Thunderbird + Enigmail = E-Mail-Sekrit-Loving

If you are a Windows-Thunderbird Junkie like I was you can't switch to Gentoo without it. Normally this is easy because Thunderbird mail is stored in a standard mail box format that is compatible with most *NIX e-mail clients!!! Why this article? Because there are situations that make this transition more complex. One of which is the Enigmail extension.

[edit] Problems?

Some people do have problems, if this guide works but you end up with a problem I suggest you take it to the forums, and once you have a solution edit this page and add what you found, to help those who come after you. Thunderbird Problem Forum

[edit] Thunderbird + Enigmail

Emerge Thunderbird with the use flag crypt:

  • Add "mail-client/mozilla-thunderbird crypt" to "/etc/portage/package.use"
  • nano -w /etc/portage/package.use

Then emerge -av mozilla-thunderbird this should emerge Thunderbird and Enigmail on to your system.

The next step is to put your Thunderbird profile in a place that the relevant operating systems can access it. (You can use the same Tunderbird profile across OS's in a dual boot system.) Note!!! If you copy your profile to a filesystem that supports file permissions (unlike FAT32 or NTFS), Thunderbird might not like your file permissions, and might hate you so much so as to just close and not tell you why. So man chmod and man chown

Finally edit your /home/user/.thunderbird/profiles.ini so that it points to your profile. And Voila!

My profile.ini

File: /home/user/.thunderbird/profiles.ini 
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile0]
Name=<strike>User</strike>
IsRelative=0
Path=/mnt/shared/Thunderbird-<strike>User</strike>


If you find any other problems and solutions for migrating Thunderbird, PLEASE edit this page.

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