Thunderbird startup folder - how to enable?
 

When I open thunderbird, both the 'messages' and 'text' panes are empty. No folder is selected and consequently no message text is displayed.

I have checked the "remember last email" option in the "Options->Default" menu but I see no change.

How can I get Thunderbird to display my inbox (its contents and, possibly, the last read message) at start-up?

This is for Windows but should work in Linux.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Command_Line_Arguments

Try some options from the commend line using your profile name first like:

/user/bin/thunderbird -p "profile_name"

KC