thunderbird is not properly installed in a Kubuntu minimal install

[thingy]

Performed a Kubuntu 20.04 Minimal install.

The KDE >> Internet menu didn't show an icon for Mozilla Thunderbird.

dpkg-query shows that Mozilla Thunderbird is installed:

---snip---
root@kubuntuvm:~# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=focal
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal

root@kubuntuvm:~# apt-get clean;apt-get update;apt-get dist-upgrade;
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease [265 kB]
Hit:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Hit:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Fetched 265 kB in 1s (251 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.

root@kubuntuvm:~# dpkg-query -Wf '${Package}\n' | grep thunderbird
thunderbird
thunderbird-locale-en
thunderbird-locale-en-gb
thunderbird-locale-en-us

root@kubuntuvm:~# ls -la /usr/bin/thunderbird
ls: cannot access '/usr/bin/thunderbird': No such file or directory

root@kubuntuvm:~# dpkg -L thunderbird | grep /usr/bin/thunderbird
/usr/bin/thunderbird
---snip---

Removing and re-installing the thunderbird package fixes the issue.

---snip---
root@kubuntuvm:/var/log# cat /var/log/dpkg.log | grep thunderbird
2020-04-23 07:41:11 install thunderbird:amd64 <none> 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-23 07:41:11 status half-installed thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-23 07:41:16 status unpacked thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-23 07:42:58 configure thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-23 07:42:58 status unpacked thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-23 07:42:58 status half-configured thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-23 07:42:58 status installed thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:14 status installed thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:15 remove thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:15 status half-configured thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:15 status half-installed thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:15 status config-files thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:16 status not-installed thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:16 status installed thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:17 remove thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:17 status half-configured thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:17 status half-installed thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:17 status config-files thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:18 status not-installed thunderbird-locale-en-us:all <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:18 status installed thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:19 remove thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:19 status half-configured thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:19 status half-installed thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:19 status config-files thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:20 status not-installed thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:20 status installed thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:20 remove thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:20 status half-configured thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:21 status half-installed thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:22 status config-files thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:35 install thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:35 status half-installed thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:43 status unpacked thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:44 configure thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:42:44 status unpacked thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:45 status half-configured thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:42:46 status installed thunderbird:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:06 install thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 <none> 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:06 status half-installed thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:07 status unpacked thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:07 install thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all <none> 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:07 status half-installed thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:08 status unpacked thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:09 install thunderbird-locale-en-us:all <none> 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:09 status half-installed thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:09 status unpacked thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:10 configure thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:43:10 status unpacked thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:11 status half-configured thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:11 status installed thunderbird-locale-en:amd64 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:11 configure thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:43:11 status unpacked thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:11 status half-configured thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:11 status installed thunderbird-locale-en-us:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:12 configure thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2 <none>
2020-04-24 07:43:12 status unpacked thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:12 status half-configured thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2
2020-04-24 07:43:12 status installed thunderbird-locale-en-gb:all 1:68.7.0+build1-0ubuntu2

root@kubuntuvm:/var/log# ls -la /usr/bin/thunderbird
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Apr 16 15:57 /usr/bin/thunderbird -> ../lib/thunderbird/thunderbird.sh
---snip---

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report but the file is including in the package, that's not a thunderbird issue. It's probably a local corruption error, closing the report

[Rik Mills (rikmills)]

Yes, not able to reproduce this on a test minimal install.

[MsHmm (mshmm)]

I can only reproduce this bug unfortunately. It happened when I did a clean mininal install of Kubuntu on the 23rd. Not seeing Thunderbird in the menu, I tried "sudo apt install thunderbird", to be told that it was already installed. In fact, the following were all installed: "thunderbird thunderbird-locale-en thunderbird-locale-en-gb thunderbird-locale-en-us". Running "sudo apt install --reinstall thunderbird" fixed the missing menu entry.

I've since downloaded via torrent another Kubuntu 20.04 ISO and tried it in VirtualBox. For me, choosing the minimal install option (whether I've clicked try Ubuntu first and loaded the desktop, or clicked try Ubuntu now) still leads to no Thunderbird entry in the menu.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I wonder, could it be that the minimal install option removes the installed packages, but doesn't do so in a clean way?

Can someone who reproduces the problem share their logs from /var/log/installer/ ?

[MsHmm (mshmm)]

Happy to share logs, osomon. Which files in /var/log/installer should I upload?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

/var/log/installer/syslog should be enough. Thanks!

[MsHmm (mshmm)]

Hopefully attached as requested. Confirm that thunderbird is installed on this system, but not present in /usr/share/applications

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Nothing relevant in this syslog, unfortunately.

However I just did a miminal Kubuntu install in a VM, and I can confirm the problem. The thunderbird package is marked as installed, but neither /usr/bin/thunderbird nor /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop are present on the system. It's as if they had been manually deleted without interaction with apt.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue is rather with the installer than with the thunderbird package itself

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thunderbird is not supposed to be installed on a minimal installation, it's properly removed on an ubuntu minimal installation

[Amr Ibrahim (amribrahim1987)]

I confirm this bug and what Olivier wrote in comment #8.