how do I move Thunderbird from cd backup to new ...

Let me rephrase that: I need my Thunderbird application from my previous ubuntu 7.10 moved to my current 8.10 version. The preinstalled T-bird app. I now have is of course blank.

It seems to me, that you just need to migrate your user data, am I right?

In your home directory should be a hidden directory called .thunderbird or .mozilla-thunderbird (the dot is important!) In there is your profile information with all your data. If you move this directory to your new system everything should work.

But as always: Backup before you do so!

If you do not know how to do that, please say so.

HTH

I do not know how to do that. Thank you.

If you can access it, see ques. #70941 for previous post.

Hi Dan,

If you open up nautilus (by clicking on the icon of your home directory, e.g.) and go to 'View' - 'show hidden documents' you'll see the "dot-directories" too. (Linux hides documents and directories by default if their names start with a dot.) Now you should see a directory calles '.thunderbird' or '.mozilla-thunderbird' (or even both and the icon of one of these has a little arrow because it is just a link to the other). if you now right click on them, you can archive them. This may take some time, and you'll get a file called ".thunderbird.zip" and '.mozilla-thunderbird.zip' in your home directory.
If you copy these files to your new computer and unpack them there in your home directory, all your data should be there. It may be helpful, if you remove the '.thunderbird' and '.mozilla-thunderbird' directory on your new computer before and should do no damage, if you haven't used thunderbird on this new machine yet.

Hope this helps

You lost me when you wrote "...you can archive them." I don't know how to archive. I don't know how to copy. I don't know how to unpack. I don't know how to remove directories, or what I'm supposed to do then. I got into this mess because the manufacturer of this machine(Everex) stopped tech support two months before they were supposed to, probably on the same April 18th date that Ubuntu 7.10 became obsolete. I couldn't do a "normal" update to v.8.04 because it was incompatible with this machine's kernel and would have destroyed this machine. The official Ubuntu Documentation warned me not to "skip" a version because it could damage the machine. The author of "psychocats" told me I couldn't upgrade with the LiveCD. I was forced to try it anyway. Yes, I'm in far over my head,and need step-by-step directions, or where to find tutorials at my primitive level. I was(still am) hoping someone, hopefully yourself, can walk me through this one operation, so that I can at least get my Thunderbird application moved to where I can use it. That will give me time to learn about file management, rather than going nuts trying to put out this brushfire. Hope your're still with me.

Steffen: I'll have to ask your forgiveness. I forgot something important. I had clicked "leave emails on server" and forgotten it. Comcast cable(ISP) said restoring emails is a simple procedure. I clicked on "tree" view in Nautilus and counted six "home directories". I'm not going to try to fix that mess at my experience level. I'm going to have to do more reading on file management before I'd try that. Meanwhile I plan to just wipe out this installation with a fresh install from the LiveCD, since there's nothing I know of that I need to keep. I still have the backup cd in any case. I appreciate your effort and patience. I do have one last question: when I had to choose the partition method I chose "use entire disk". Do you know of any reason to choose otherwise this time? If I haven't heard from you in about a week, I'll click "problem solved". Thanks. Dan.

Thanks Steffen Banhardt, that solved my question.