Dear folks - I have just had help from the forum to get a broadband connection to my debian 3.1, which is now two years since installation and has been standalone until now. I visited the thunderbird site to download thunderbird mail client and it came down as a tar.gz file which i have saved.

Have I done the right thing - I know Debian works with packages - should I acquire thunderbird as a package? If so how do I do that, or if I can work with the tar.gz files what should I do with them please?

May thanks for your help

Greeb

In general, it is much easier to install SW using the package manager and the repositories, but Thunderbird is normally painless to install.

If you have the tar.gz file put it in /opt and do this:

tar -xzvf thun* (I'm assuming that's how the filename starts, and that it is unique)
ls (you will see a new folder named thunderbird)
cd into the new folder
./thunderbird (this does the initial setup and starts the program)

You can now put a link to the command in your HOME directory or in the GUI menus

It might be easier for you to get download the package. I am not familiar with Debian so I can't help you there, but I can help with the tar.gz file.

If you want to install Thunderbird installed system wide, I recommend untarring it in the /usr/local directory as root. If you are the only one going to be using Thunderbird, then untar it under your home directory. Here is a link for the instructions: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=537375

If you want to create an icon for Thunderbird on your desktop, the link will have instructions to do this in KDE. If you are using some other desktop manager, it should be somewhat the same.

Hope this helps

apt-get update
apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird

done..


When searching for packages you can search the apt repositories

apt-cache search thunderbird

or you can use the web based search

http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

Thanks Guys, appreciate the help - I used the synaptic package manager as well.

When I used the package manager it asked me to insert my installation disc which is two years old. How do I know I have installed a relatively new version?

Also if I download the package and use apt how do I tell apt to use the package downloaded to the hard drive rather than it ask me for the distribution discs?


Thanks,
Greeb

You need to change your /etc/apt/sources.list file and get rid of the entries for the CDROM, and only use the internet repositories..

Thanks - will try this out.

Check out this thread for ideas on your sources.list:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=330913


I base mine not on the thread but on craigevils link to his own sources list that is at the bottom of post one, it serves me well enough, I change it to the UK Debian server though

Hope this helps