In the middle of the upgrade, reported unable to contact Thunderbird Snap.
Multiple retries for about 60 minutes, then continue with error report, exiting with code 1.
I checked Thunderbird from a second Ubuntu machine that upgraded to 24.04 successfully yesterday, and all seemed well with that site.
I plan to try to complete the upgrade, then check status of Thunderbird.
Is there anything else I should do ?
Keep well,
John.
On rare occasion I do get error(s) (timeout etc) when accessing the snap store; but usually a re-try will resolve successfully, so Iâve not really worried about it.
Yes a failure will be scary when its related to a release-upgrade, but Iâd expect the release-upgrade to complete successfully (even if it reports a problem due to error), and Iâd expect a reboot to work and allow login and operation to appear normally⌠however since the error related to the thunderbird app; Iâd NOT be surprised if that app no longer functioned on reboot; but Iâd also expect that could be easily rectified via a snap refresh or even snap install thunderbird if you use the app.
I have encountered an issue like you describe once, but it was an snap app that wasnât important to me, so I wasnât worried. I recall fixing it rather easily (alas I canât recall what commands I used), but then as I didnât use the snap package I then removed it once I was satisfied Iâd fixed the issue & app appeared to function correctly.
Thanks for the advice.
Upgrade completed with an alarming message that âsystem failed to install and may be unusableâ!
When checked, everything on desktop appeared the same and release reported as 24.04 LTS.
Thunderbird version shows as 115.16 Oesr (64 bit).
The Thunderbird website provides 128.4.4esr.tar.bz2 as the current download.
Should I attempt an upgrade ?
Current snap version of Thunderbird on Lubuntu 24.04 LTS is 128.4.3 esr.
For upgrading please try command snap refresh as recommended by guiverc.
A snap info thunderbird shows
latest/stable: 128.4.3esr-1 2024-11-14 (571) 157MB -
latest/candidate: 128.4.4esr-1 2024-11-19 (581) 157MB -
latest/beta: 133.0b5-2 2024-11-19 (579) 160MB -
so Iâd attempt an snap refresh as @Wolf314 suggested; or if you only want to refresh the thunderbird snap you can use snap refresh thunderbird to specifically refresh that only (I usually use snap refresh to update all, unless I have specific reason not to)
To view the full detail of what I pasted, try a snap info thunderbird on your own system.
I can only add as advice for future major updates (or in general, as a backup):
if you feel scary about such procedures (it will work in general, and you donât have too be too scary to loose something - if you know where to ask for help), but you can feel more assured to recuperate your important email archive, when youâve copied the Thunderbird profile directory to a safe place before starting. Personally I also copy the Firefox profile directory regularly (for the years of accumulated bookmarks, and some history, and the passwords of course). Thunderbird (and Firefox) upgrades never failed me (using normal apt update), but you never know.
I would give this advice anyone: not just backup your pictures, âWordâ and âExcelâ-documents, but the âMozillaâ-stuff as well 
. In fact, I copy the whole home-directory. That should do it in case of emergency.
Be aware, some important files are stored in ââhiddenââ directories, and it is easy to skip them.
If you are interested, there are tons of ways to efficiently make incremental (hourly, daily) backups, but that is out of scope here.
I run a weekly back-up using BU, so I hope I could recover from a mishap.
Launched the Package Manager (Muon), and it listed a Thunderbird Snap as "upgradeableâ.
Selected to upgrade, and after a few minutes Thunderbird now running and reporting as â128.4.3esr (64 bit)â
So all good, thanks for the help.
As a side note, fell for the trap, and installed a link to the Snap Store !
Keep well,
John.
PS
I did follow the advice from Guiverc, but I couldnât get the upgrade to happen.
Thunderbird working well, but there is a small problem.
The desktop icon for Thunderbird is shown as an unknown file type with a "?'.
The desktop entry has for the icon:
/// URL=/usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop. ///
But there is no icon at that location.
I found an icon at:
/// /snap/thunderbird/current/snap/gui/thunderbird.png ///
Can I just change the desktop entry and all will be well ?
John.
On reflection, I do not actually know what the various parts of a desktop entry do.
At the URL listed above, there is a âThunderbird Mailâ, and that seems to be a complete Snap entry (but it does not say that) with âIcon=thunderbirdâ.
Do I have a mix of the previous install and the new Snap ?
John.
On my system itâs the same: thunderbird.desktop at /usr/share/applications shows thunderbird as entry for the icon whereas at local directory the full path is written. So you donât have to worry about a mix of different installations.
Your idea about replacing the path seems to be correct to me, so please give it a try. (In my case the path is /snap/thunderbird/581/meta/gui/thunderbird.png because I have chosen another icon theme.)
Alas, I am not aware of how the wrong path came into play.
Thanks Wolf314.
Found an icon in the same location on my system.
Changed the desktop entry to that location as yours seemed more logical.
Now it shows the icon.
But, an observation:
The Desktop Entry for Thunderbird is different in format to the Firefox Desktop Entry.
I wonât try to understand why they are different, just enjoy a working arrangement.
John.