Can no longer copy .thunderbird directory to another qube after dom0 update

User Support General
1

Yesterday I did a dom0 update. Since then, I can no longer copy my .thunderbird directory from its qube to another qube to back it up. I can copy other directories within the same qube that contains .thunderbird, including hidden ones, to another qube.

I tried copying the .thunderbird directory to the Desktop directory in the thunderbird qube, then copying the Desktop directory to another qube, but this didn’t work either. I can, however, copy the Desktop directory to another qube if it doesn’t contain .thunderbird.

I reinstalled the template for the thunderbird qube but the problem persists. The thunderbird qube is based on the debian-12-xfce template.

I’d appreciate help in solving this problem. I need to be able to back up my .thunderbird directory regularly.

2

What error do you see when you try to copy it?

3

I see no error when trying to copy using the GUI copy tool. When I right-click on the .thunderbird directory and choose from the drop-down menu, “Copy to other qube”, the drop-down menu disappears and nothing else happens. The dom0 “Operation execution” window which would allow me to choose the destination qube does not appear.

I tried copying it in the thunderbird qube’s terminal using the following command:

qvm-copy /home/user/.thunderbird

This gives the error, ‘qubes-fs-tree-check: Refusing to copy unsafe symbolic link “/home/user/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default/lock”’, where “xxxxxxxx” is my default folder name. This reminds me of a similar problem I had after an earlier dom0 update which made it impossible to copy symbolic links from qube to qube. I thought that issue was fixed in a subsequent dom0 update, but maybe it has returned.

EDIT: I’m almost certain that the previous similar problem with copying symbolic links did not affect my ability to copy the .thunderbird directory to another qube.

4

Yep, probably more limitations on what symlinks can be (qvm-)copied.

Checking on a dispvm I see that this is indeed a broken symlink (blame Thunderbird developers?)

user@disp214:~$ ls -l .thunderbird/aeqg72u8.default-default/lock 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 14 Nov 14 12:53 .thunderbird/aeqg72u8.default-default/lock -> 127.0.0.1:+959
user@disp214:~$ file .thunderbird/aeqg72u8.default-default/lock
.thunderbird/aeqg72u8.default-default/lock: broken symbolic link to 127.0.0.1:+959
user@disp2104:~$

So… You can probably “tar” the directory and copy the tar, or just remove the symlink (with thunderbird not running), and copy the directory… thunderbird re-creates the lock file on next run.

5

Thanks, barto. Removing the lock file did indeed allow me to copy the .thunderbird directory to another qube.

1 Like