Hey guys, I am still trying to figure out this .tar.gz stuff. I have run tar xvzf [tarballfile] and have a thunderbird folder on my desktop. There is no ./configure in the file. I am cd'd into the thunderbird folder. I saw in another forum somebody told another person to cd into the folder, and run ./thunderbird. When I try and do that, I get the following output. I will also show you the ls from the file:

bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop$ cd thunderbird
bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop/thunderbird$ ls
chrome libfreebl3.so libsoftokn3.so removed-files
components libldap50.so libssl3.so res
defaults libmozjs.so libxpcom_compat.so run-mozilla.sh
dependentlibs.list libnspr4.so libxpcom_core.so thunderbird
dictionaries libnss3.so libxpcom.so thunderbird-bin
extensions libnssckbi.so libxpistub.so updater
greprefs libplc4.so license.html updater.ini
icons libplds4.so LICENSE.txt updates
init.d libprldap50.so mozilla-installer-bin xpicleanup
isp libsmime3.so mozilla-xremote-client
libfreebl3.chk libsoftokn3.chk README.txt
bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop/thunderbird$ ./thunderbird
./run-mozilla.sh: 424: ./thunderbird-bin: not found
bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop/thunderbird$

Can anyone help me? Are .tar.gz files simply unzipping them to a folder, then running the ./configure or the equivalent? What am I doing wrong? This is the only thing about linux so far that I can't seem to figure out. Thank you so much for your help!

bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop$ cd thunderbird
bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop/thunderbird$ ls
chrome libfreebl3.so libsoftokn3.so removed-files
components libldap50.so libssl3.so res
defaults libmozjs.so libxpcom_compat.so run-mozilla.sh
dependentlibs.list libnspr4.so libxpcom_core.so thunderbird
dictionaries libnss3.so libxpcom.so thunderbird-bin
extensions libnssckbi.so libxpistub.so updater
greprefs libplc4.so license.html updater.ini
icons libplds4.so LICENSE.txt updates
init.d libprldap50.so mozilla-installer-bin xpicleanup
isp libsmime3.so mozilla-xremote-client
libfreebl3.chk libsoftokn3.chk README.txt
bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop/thunderbird$ ./thunderbird
./run-mozilla.sh: 424: ./thunderbird-bin: not found
bparkerson04@bparkerson04-laptop:~/Desktop/thunderbird$

A .tar.gz is just a set of files compressed together. You can put anything in them.
Many people distribute source code as tar.gz, but your thunderbird tar.gz does not look like source code, and does not have to be ./configure'd.
It is just that the run-mozilla.sh script in this archive is buggy or not meant to be run with your setup. Are you running bash?
Did you try to run thunderbird-bin directly?
Could you please post the result of 'ls -l ./thunderbird-bin'?
Could please post some lines of run-mozilla.sh (around line 424, say from 400 to 430)?

try
chmod +x ./thunderbird-bin
./thunderbird-bin

Did you read the readme file?

Most distro have Thunderbird as a package try installing it using your distros package manager.

The Mozilla packages do not need to be installed , simple untar and run the thunderbird executable.

Exactly. Have you found that thingie called Synaptic Package Manager (System > Admin > Synaptic)? Just find thunderbird on the list, check its box and it will be installed for you.

I'll try some of this when I get home tonight. I tried clicking on thunderbird and stuff, and a window would pop up with a run button, or run in terminal. Neither of these buttons did anything? In regards to the mozilla-sh thing, how do I show you the lines (400-?) How do I pull those up for you? How can I run the Thunderbird executable? I want to do it this way simply because I want to learn how to compile and install these .tar.gz files. It bugs me not to know how to do something, and I really am considering making linux my primary OS, but I have to master something basic like this to do it though. Downloading is an essential skill in an OS : ) Thanks for the help guys.


Hey repo, your suggestion...are those two seperate commands? Run the one on top first, and then run the one under it?

yes

Okay guys, just an update. I am somewhat convinced now that there is something wrong with the tar file. The output saying run-mozilla.ssh : 442 :./thunderbird.sh does not exist got me thinking that maybe the file is missing in the code on line 442 in the run-mozilla file. I opened it up, and line 442 simply says fi, and the next line is an exit command. The lines above it are an if, then, else statment. I tried adding ./thunderbird.ssh (can't remember the file extension), ./thunderbird, ./thunderbird.bh, (i used the right file extension, I just don't remember it as I'm typing). The last thing I tried was adding the path to the thunderbird.bh file, but that didn't work either. I have tried running the run-mozilla-bh and thunderbird-bh (the executables) by double clicking them, and trying to run them in terminal via ./ and nothing works. I am under the opinion now that the tarball file is bad. Am I still doing something wrong? Is it possible for the tarball file to be bad? I am willing to start over. Can someone give me a step by step from square 1? Before I tried to install it, I downloaded the stuff the ubuntu forum says you need unpack and make tarballs via command line. Does anyone know off hand what all I need to download to unpack and install these files? I want to learn tarball, but I am ready to give up on this example and just use the synaptic package manager, but I would like to do this tarball so I can learn and grow from it, and I also just don't like giving up on things. Thanks again for your help guys!

What does that "README.txt" say?
I'm just guessing here, try:

The readme actually doesn't say anything. It just give a link to the mozilla site if you need help downloading the file. I followed that link, and I couldn't find anything that was helpful. The link takes you directly to the page to download Thunderbird.

okay, I extracted the tar file to my desktop.
I cd to the thunderbird file on my desktop. The only things that look like they might do anything are mozilla-installer-bin, mozilla-xremote-client, run-mozilla.sh, thunderbird (in green as well as all other files I am typing), thunderbird-bin, updater, xpicleanup, removed-files

here are some outputs

when I try ./thunderbird, I get the output
./run-mozilla.sh: 424: ./thunderbird-bin: not found

when I try ./run-mozilla.sh, I get
run-mozilla.sh: Cannote execute .

when I try ./mozilla-installer-bin, I get
bash: ./mozilla-installer-bin: No such file or directory

when I try ./thunderbird-bin, I get
bash: ./thunderbird-bin: No such file or directory

Do you guys have any ideas?

Just to leave nothing to chance, I assume you've downloaded the file thunderbird-2.0.0.19.tar.gz from the Thunderbird site.
1. Open a terminal and navigate to the folder where you downloaded the tarball
2. Untar it (you may have down this already) You will see a new directory called "thunderbird".
3. Now there is an executable by the same name as the current folder, thunderbird. If you want to test it, type this:
4. I download things to /tmp and not to the desktop to avoid clutter so doing the above command on my system looks like this:
5. Now close thunderbird and cd up one level and move the whole thunderbird folder to a permanent location. I'd suggest moving it to /opt. You have to be root or use sudo to do this.
6. Create a shortcut to /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird on your desktop and you're good to go.
Cheers,
jdk

I am still trying to learn the folder structure and how the directories work in linux. I usually donwload everything to my Documents folder or to the desktop. When I cd to the thunderbird folder on the desktop, and I try ./thunderbird, I get the output that you can see in the post above yours from me. The output almost seems like there is something missing in the run-mozilla.sh file at line 442, and it has something to do with the thunder-bin folder. Could you possible give me a run down on how the folder and directory structure works in linux for someone who has used windows all their life? I don't really know where stuff downloads by default, where to find my favorites for firefox, where all of my programs are located in the filesystem, etc. Thanks for all the help guys!

Okay guys, good news. I came home, hooked my system up to the net, did an update, and now the ./thunderbird from the thunderbird folder works. when I type that in the terminal, it launches thunderbird. my next question is how do I actually install it and have a launcher from my start menu thingy (don't know what it's called in linux), and all that jazz. Where do installed programs go by default? in windows they usually go to C:/Program Files/ etc. What is the equivalent in linux so I can start puttin things there. Thanks again for the help guys.