As you probably have guessed I am trying to advocate for Ubuntu by the common computer illiterate. It’s ready, of course, but one of my favorite and most preferred pieces of cross-platform software is causing me some trouble.

Let’s be clear on this: the population for whom this will be a problem is presumably very tiny. You must be running 64bit Ubuntu, you must want to keep a current-stable-build PPA (repository) available for Thunderbird (that’s my darling), and you must want to run the Lightning extension for calendaring.

Ubuntu itself gets a little behind on Mozilla software because of their update v upgrade philosophy.  Normally I wouldn’t care, but since Thunderbird development is moving along I’d rather keep to the current-stable builds.  Ubuntuzilla offers that possibility by maintaining their own repository.

On my 32bit Ubuntu machine (10.04 currently) I am running Thunderbird v5 and the current beta build for Lightning, and I am doing this all through the Ubuntuzilla PPA so that I get updates whenever a new stable version shows up.

On my 64bit Ubuntu machine (also 10.04) the only trouble I have encountered is with this exact software combination.  Literally every other piece of software I might care to use (Transmission, Opera, Banshee, &c) are all fully operational in the manner of my usual choosing: rockin’ the 64bit world.

In part this is possible on the 32bit machien because Ubuntuzilla maintains a current-stable-build PPA for certain Mozilla software (at least Firefox and Thunderbird). The problem with this repository is, according to them:

Until such a time as Mozilla decides to release 64bit builds, this repository will only host 32bit packages.

My 32bit machine is running v5 because of the PPA, but my 64bit machine is still running v3.1.11 because Ubuntu seems to think that’s current enough.  The latest version of Lightning is 64bit compatible (I think); however, the current version of Lightning is no longer compatible with Tb v3.  And the previous version of Lightning—wait for it—is not 64bit compatible.

It has been brought to my attention here that Mozilla is currently offering a 64bit build.

That’s all very exciting except that UbuntuZilla doesn’t seem to have received the memo.  Or I’m misinterpreting this other information.  Or something else I can’t quite envision.

You get the basic picture.

I want my Thunderbird 64bit with Lightning, and I want to be able to also advocate this same solution for folks for whom compiling their own every time a new release shows up is like asking a Labrador to perform calculus: it involves a ball, a lot of saliva, and probably some swimming.

I am communicating with the Ubuntuzilla community and will bring updates here as I have them.

Solution:

You will find my write-up here.