Identifying your problem area
To be able to identify if it's Thunderbird or Thunderbird extensions you need to disable all Thunderbird extension you have installed and enabled. You do so by starting Thunderbird, go to "Tools", select "Add-ons" and disable all extensions listed there.
Quit Thunderbird and start it again. Recreate whatever you did that caused the problem your experiencing and see if it persists.
If the problem persisted go to "Debugging Thunderbird".
If the problem did not persist enable each extension and try to recreate the problem then disable the extension you just enabled again until you come across which extension is causing the problem then go to "Debugging Thunderbird Extensions".
Information to include in your report
All bug reports
In all cases, the following should be mentioned and attached to your bug report:
- What version of Thunderbird your using.
- The exact command-line used if an command was used to start Thunderbird.
- Screen shot of Thunderbird window if an graphical error occurs or Thunderbird shows an error.
- List of Thunderbird extension you have installed.
No additional/specific step need to be included for specific Thunderbird problems.
Debugging Thunderbird
Install Thunderbird debug package.
$ su -c 'debuginfo-install thunderbird'
Find Thunderbirds process ID ( PID )
Sample output... $ ps -C thunderbird-bin PID TTY TIME CMD 22924 ? 01:15:06 thunderbird-bin
Attache GNU Project Debugger to Thunderbirds PID
$ gdb thunderbird-bin 22924
If gdb complaints about "Missing separate debuginfos" then type "quit" in the gdb shell and do a copy paste of the debuginfo-install entry and install it the same way as above then and rerun the gdb thunbird-bin PID command.
Sample error entry... Missing separate debuginfos, use: debuginfo-install PackageKit-gtk-module-0.4.9-1.fc11.x86_64 audiofile-0.2.6-10.fc11.x86_64 elfutils-libelf-0.142-1.fc11.x86_64 esound-libs-0.2.41-2.fc11.x86_64 gecko-mediaplayer-0.9.8-1.fc11.x86_64 gvfs-1.2.3-12.fc11.x86_64 libXScrnSaver-1.1.3-2.fc11.x86_64 libXext-1.0.99.1-3.fc11.x86_64 libgnomeui-2.24.1-1.fc11.x86_64 libical-0.43-4.fc11.x86_64 libtool-ltdl-2.2.6-11.fc11.1.x86_64 libvorbis-1.2.0-8.fc11.x86_64 libxml2-2.7.5-1.fc11.x86_64 sqlite-3.6.12-3.fc11.x86_64 thunderbird-enigmail-0.97a-0.1.cvs20090721.fc11.x86_64
Enable logging to a file in gdb.
From the gdb shell type `set logging on'
Sample ouput... (gdb) set logging on Copying output to gdb.txt. Current language: auto; currently minimal
Then type cont and redo the steps in Thunderbird that caused the error your experiencing.
Sample output... (gdb) cont Continuing.
After you have recreated the steps that causes the error your experiencing press CTRL-C in the gdb shell and type thread apply all bt.
Sample output... ^C Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt. 0x0000003846ad50d3 in *__GI___poll (fds=<value optimized out>, nfds=<value optimized out>, timeout=-1) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/poll.c:87 87 int result = INLINE_SYSCALL (poll, 3, CHECK_N (fds, nfds), nfds, timeout); Current language: auto; currently minimal (gdb) thread apply all bt Thread 19 (Thread 0x7fffdacff910 (LWP 20935)): Output trunkated.... ---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit--
Press return until you are returned to the gdb shell then type quit and exit the debugger.
Sample output... Current language: auto; currently minimal (gdb) quit The program is running. Quit anyway (and kill it)? (y or n) y
Attache gdb.txt to your bugzilla report..
If the application crashes on startup you need to start it inside the GNU Project Debugger to
To do so type open an terminal window and type gdb.
Sample output... [username@example ~]$ gdb GNU gdb (GDB) Fedora (6.8.50.20090302-38.fc11) Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details. This GDB was configured as "x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu". For bug reporting instructions, please see: <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>. (gdb)
First we want to turn on logging then execute startup of the application and finally tell it to run at our command.
Sample output for... (gdb) set logging on Copying output to gdb.txt. (gdb) exec-file /usr/lib64/thunderbird-3.0b4/thunderbird-bin (gdb) run Starting program: /usr/lib64/thunderbird-3.0b4/thunderbird-bin [Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
When the application has crashed type thread apply all bt and quit gdb.
Sample output... gdb) thread apply all bt Thread 19 (Thread 0x7fffdacff910 (LWP 20935)): Output trunkated.... ---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit--
Press return until you are returned to the gdb shell then type quit and exit the debugger.
Sample output... Current language: auto; currently minimal (gdb) quit The program is running. Quit anyway (and kill it)? (y or n) y
Attache the gdb.txt to your report