thunderbird won't automatically start web browser when user clicks on http link

[Thorsten]

Binary package hint: thunderbird

Clicking on an http link in an email message in Thunderbird 3.0.4 does not launch a web browser. Instead, the user has to manually specify the full path to the web browser app.

(Just entering 'firefox' does not work and fails silently. One has to enter /usr/bin/firefox, e.g. As the default directory shown is ~/Documents, users unfamiliar with the Linux file system hierarchy have no reasonable chance of finding the correct path/file name.)

Desired behavior: just launch the system default web browser. (Alternatively, and esp. given the relationship between TB and FF, TB could just check if there was an executable app named 'firefox' in the path and just launch that.)

Failing that, the user should at least be presented with a list of apps registered to handle the HTTP protocol.

Environment: a freshly installed Kubuntu 10.04 beta 2, with Thunderbird 3.0.4 and Firefox 3.6.3 from the standard repository. Konqueror is the system browser, but FF is known to KDE, as well.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: thunderbird 3.0.4+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Apr 11 08:54:56 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/thunderbird-3.0.4/thunderbird-bin
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100406.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: thunderbird

[Lennart Hengstmengel (farenji)]

Installing the package thunderbird-gnome-support fixes this issue.

This package should be installed automatically at upgrade / install, but it isn't.