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This is an update process question.

After the latest Thunderbird update (version 102), I realized my Tbsync add-on was now incompatible. Tbsync has been updated to v4 to catch up to TB 102, but my current Tbsync version is 3.0.2 and Thunderbird can't find any updates available in the repositories.

So I wondered what the last Tbsync version was in the repositories and found this page which tells me that the available versions for Tbsync go from v2 for Ubuntu 20.04 to v3 for Ubuntu 22.10. And to make it worse, I'm still running 18.04...

So I guess my questions are :

  • how do I know which version is currently available for 18.04 (which is supposed to be still maintained)?
  • how do I know if/when v4 will be available for any distrib?
  • how come I end up with unusable software with no warning, and how a newbie is supposed to manage, without resorting to manual .deb install? This is not a rhetorical question for complaining but rather, what is the product UX view on this and what is at stake here?
BeastOfCaerbannog
  • 14,585
pHneutre
  • 125
  • I would point out that there is no syncs, version bumps, etc. for MOST software versions. Thunderbird updates happen regularly, but packages in the repositories that're in Universe are unlikely to get updates (such as Tbsync). If you install tbsync via the repositories themselves, you're unlikely to get ANY updates for that package without installing it yourself. For Thunderbird this is where you should be using tbsync from upstream and not the Ubuntu repositories. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/151283/why-dont-the-ubuntu-repositories-have-the-latest-versions-of-software – Thomas Ward Nov 04 '22 at 16:26
  • My TB is installed from ubuntu-bionic-updates-main repo, and I got a recent update. I also got updates for several other softwares from that repo in the last months, such as Firefox, LibreOffice, Docker, Element, Gnome... So I'm not following you @ThomasWard. (However I'm unsure where addons are installed from when I get them from TB addons page.) – pHneutre Nov 04 '22 at 19:14
  • @user535733 as I said just above, I'm using ubuntu-bionic-updates-main for TB, which is an Ubuntu repo. – pHneutre Nov 04 '22 at 19:15
  • @user535733 in addition, thank you for your answer below, but I'm still confused as to how to get information for updates to come in the general case (i.e. recent distrib, any package that gets updates). Like, is there a thread where I can find the progress of the new version integration to the repo or something? – pHneutre Nov 04 '22 at 19:23

1 Answers1

5

If you are concerned with how to install the TbSync add-on in your Ubuntu version, there are two options to install it in a way that does not depend on the version in Ubuntu repos. By using either of them you should end up with TbSync 4.3 installed.

Option 1

  1. Open Thunderbird and click on the hamburger menu (≡) on the top right → Add-ons and Themes.

    Thunderbird menu

  2. In the Find more add-ons search box search for "tbsync". This should open a new tab.

    Thunderbird add-on search

  3. In the new tab click the Add to Thunderbird button for the TbSync extension and then click Add on the pop-up.

    Add TbSync extension

Option 2

  1. Download the TbSync-beta.xpi file from TbSync's Releases page on GitHub.

  2. Open Thunderbird and click on the hamburger menu (≡) on the top right → Add-ons and Themes.

    Thunderbird menu

  3. Click the cog icon and select Install Add-on From File...

    Install Add-on From File

  4. Navigate to the directory where you downloaded the file, select the file and click Open.

    navigate to file

  5. Click Add on the pop-up window.

    Add extension

BeastOfCaerbannog
  • 14,585
  • New input: on my side even TbSync 4.3 is considered incompatible with TB102, in the addons browser from within TB (despite being said to be OK when I browse it in Firefox). So 1) option 1 won't work: TbSync does not appear in the list, and 2) even if you select the "works with: any TB" filter and download the XPI, or if you download it according to option 2, the dowloaded XPI fails to install.

    Obviously it's a new issue strictly speaking, I'll look it up but if you have a hint feel free. Thanks anyway!

     – pHneutre Nov 07 '22 at 15:21
  • issue created for the record – pHneutre Nov 07 '22 at 15:40