Setting the Default Mail Client for Firefox
Until today, every time I’ve clicked a mailto link in Firefox, the clunky old Evolution email program has started churning, and I’ve smacked myself on the forehead and cursed as I waited for that behemoth of an application to load. You see, I use the lightweight Thunderbird, which loads in an instant and is as flexible and powerful as I need it to be. So I wait for Evolution to finish loading a compose window, close that down, copy the mailto link into a Thunderbird composition window, and write my email. It’s a pain every time.
One of the RSS feeds I keep an eye on is Linux Journal’s, and an article entitled “Ten Mysteries of about:config” caught my eye there today. It’s a decent little article by Nigel McFarlane, author of Firefox Hacks, which I just received in the mail this week and which looks promising. One of the mysteries Nigel explains is how to set a default mail client in Firefox on Linux (it’s easy enough in Windows because it’s governed at the system level). It takes only three steps:
- Open about:config in your browser.
- Set the preference named “network.protocol-handler.external.mailto” to true; if it doesn’t exist, create it and set it to true.
- Create a preference named “network.protocol-handler.app.mailto” and set it to the path to Thunderbird. In my case, this is /usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird.
That’s all there is to it. When I did this and clicked a mailto link, a Thunderbird composition window shot to the foreground and I was in business.
Konrad said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Hi all,
Thanks for that tip!
I still have a problem with that network.protocol-handler.app.mailto option. I want to set this on my Windows machine. My wife wants to use Outlook for mails and stupid WindowsXP cannot handle a default mail client for each user.
Maybe something is wrong with the path. How do I have to enter the Windows path? With backslash or /?
C:\Programme\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe
I also tried quotation marks to take care of the space. No luck.
Hope someone can help
Heather said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Thank you so much. This is just the tip that I have been looking for.
Greg Heilers said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Great tip! However, if like me, you use Sylpheed, a few additional
steps are required to get it all working properly. See this:
http://linux.sgms-centre.com/howto/mozilla.php
Jomy said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Perfect! I have been googling for quite some time to find out a solution for this issue! Thanks for posting this.
Meme said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Where is About:Config??? I don’t see it in 1.5
justPoppingin said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Just type:
about:config
in the address bar of the firefox browser. It will open automatically.
Zig said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Thank you for this tip, it works a treat.
I have noticed though that on my system (Suse 10 64bit) that it only works for creating a new message.
It does not work (on my machine) if I select to read mail.
The file I’m pointing to contains the following code so I would expect it to open read mail if the correct ‘parameter’ is being passed to the file:
function open_mail() {
if [ ${ALREADY_RUNNING} -eq 1 ]; then
$MOZ_CLIENT_PROGRAM $X_DISPLAY ‘xfeDoCommand(openInbox)’
bail $?
else
$MOZ_PROGRAM $MOZ_LANG “$@”
bail $?
fi
}
function open_compose() {
if [ ${ALREADY_RUNNING} -eq 1 ]; then
MAILTO=`echo $2 | awk ‘BEGIN{FS=”:”} $1 ~ /mailto/ {print $2}’`
$MOZ_CLIENT_PROGRAM $X_DISPLAY “mailto($MAILTO)”
bail $?
else
$MOZ_PROGRAM $MOZ_LANG “$@”
bail $?
fi
}
Manually clicking on the shell file opens thunderbird at the mailbox.
Should this work for reading mail and if not do you have a similar tip for reading mail?
Thanks
Zig
avantgardaclue said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I am new to linux (ubuntu) and have swapped from the rather clunky evolution to thunderbird also. Most queer, no problems at all in setting it up and using thunderbird as a stand alone application. HOWEVER when i hit an email hyperlink on a web page up pops the thunderbird profile screen asking me to choose my profile, i do, click on ’start thunderbird’ (it’s already open) and it says can’t use this profile because it’s already in use, please choose another profile or create a new one. Very very annoying…. your assistance with regard to this would be most gratefully accepted.
Thanks… Avantgardaclue in England
dave_mucha@yahoo.com said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Hi,
I cannot figure out how to use gmailas the default e-mail under windows XP
can anyone offer a clue ?
Dave
simanek said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Hello,
I’m a Linux nube and this was a big help. However, I am using Ubuntu and the application file path you provided did not work. After some looking here is the Thunderbird path for Ubuntu 5.1:
/usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird
I think this is also the general location for most of the applications for any former OSX and Windows users wondering where their Applications/Programs folder went to. Thought this might be helpful. Thanks again.
George said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
To add the app.mailto pref, right click -> new -> string
David Jameson said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I realise that one can set the desired mail program explicitly but if you don’t do that, how is firefox (Linux) determining the “default” program in the first place - is there a file somewhere (perhaps in /etc) that defines default programs?
Thanks
Ballenato said,
July 15, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
It works perfectly when clicking on a “mailto” link or “sending” the page, but the option Tools > Read Mail doesn’t work. I’ve read that this feature is only available in Windows, is it true? I can’t believe there’s no way to enable it. There’s always a way in Linux!