[nmglug] Comcast and Thunderbird Blues Reprise

Thu Apr 18 18:46:19 PDT 2019

Hi Tom,

You're email only went to me, so I re-added nmglug at lists.nmglug.org to 
the To list.

Since your OS is pretty fucked up, you definitely should tackle that 
first. When you are able to login with some form of shell, I would look 
at journalctl to see if anything is throwing any obvious error.
To look at your kernel logs from the boot before the current boot do this:
$ sudo journalctl -k -b -1

If you're not sure which -b number to use, (-1 ,-2, -3, -4, -5, etc) do 
this command:
$ sudo journalctl --list-boots

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Journal
https://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/journalctl.1

If you have to reinstall, I would make sure to save all the commands you 
use to install your stuff. That way, going forward, re-OSing will be 
easier.

If anyone has any other advice over figuring out why a particular kernel 
won't boot, please let us know. This has never really happened to me, so 
I don't have too much experience over this topic. Would be a great LUG 
topic.

Regards,
Jared

On 4/17/19 11:46 PM, Tom Ashcraft wrote:
>
> Thanks for the response and for the time spent poking around for me, 
> Jared.  You've helped me out a couple or more times before and I 
> really appreciate it.
>
> At present, your suggestions seem mostly to confirm that I know what I 
> think I know and that I haven't lost my last marble.  I think...
>
> This time I'm writing to let you/the others know that things are 
> getting stranger still. Now I'm getting the 'can't connect to 
> imap.ge.xfinity message' on *my* computer, not my wife's.
>
> To reiterate, both computer's Thunderbird server settings are *already 
> set* to imap.comcast.net.  Neither has been set to imap.ge.xfinity.com 
> since shortly after installing our new Netgear brand, 
> non-Comcast-owned modem-router.
>
> Unfortunately, coincidentally, another possibly more pressing slight 
> misfortune (entirely unrelated) has befallen me.  My computer, the 
> computer on which I now write, has crashed to the point of having to 
> boot from the oldest available kernel to get a proper TTY or Plasma 
> desktop on Kubuntu 18.04 to load again.
>
> I see I have an update to install--probably the same one I may have 
> inadvertently accomplished a hard disorderly shutdown in the middle of 
> to cause the present boot problem (Earlier today I unexpectedly had to 
> attend to other matters and forgot about being in the midst of an 
> update when I put the computer in 'suspend' mode.  When I came back 
> hours later, it wouldn't wake up properly).
>
> Anyway, email downloads properly on this machine, despite the 
> disconcerting (post crash) reappearance of the same odd message that I 
> had on the other machine.
>
> If you don't hear from me for a while, assume accepting the update was 
> a bad idea and I've had to reinstall my OS--and that my email gremlin 
> is still probably hiding somewhere close by just waiting for me to 
> forget about it...
>
> Tom
>
> On 4/17/19 1:51 PM, Alucard wrote:
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>> I spent a couple of minutes to see if that was easily change-able 
>> from command line. However, it looks like Thunderbird wants you to 
>> adjust this via the GUI.
>>
>>   * Click on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines that
>>     represent a menu, top right of TBird)
>>   * Hover over Preferences -> Account Settings
>>   * Go to the Comcast email -> Server Settings
>>   * Change the server name to: imap.comcast.net
>>   * Change the same setting for any other Comcast emails.
>>
>> If there was still no effect, re-open TBird and check again. If it 
>> still won't change, then I would remove the IMAP account, and re-add 
>> it. Unless you stray from this, then you will not lose any Local 
>> Folders, or contacts.
>>
>>   * Click on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines that
>>     represent a menu, top right of TBird)
>>   * Hover over Preferences -> Account Settings
>>   * Click on the Comcast email
>>   * Go to Account Actions and select Remove Account
>>   * To re-add, Go to Account Actions and select Add Mail Account
>>   * Manually configure your email account again.
>>   * Repeat for any other Comcast email addresses in your current profile.
>>
>> I don't think TBird really wants you to poke around in the config, 
>> unless you're going to backup/restore files.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jared
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 4/17/19 1:16 PM, Tom Ashcraft wrote:
>>> It's happening again.  And no, I'm not off my meds, but I'm 
>>> beginning to wonder if perhaps I should be on some as this stuff is 
>>> starting to make me feel really crazy.
>>>
>>> Anyone know their way around the .thunderbird directories well 
>>> enough to point me toward the likely suspects?
>>>
>>> First, Comcast apparently configured our rented modem-router in such 
>>> a way that imap.comcast.net failed in all instances of Thunderbird 
>>> on different machines in our house.  I eventually discovered and 
>>> adopted the workaround of using imap.ge.xfinity.com (perfectly 
>>> functional, but with invalid certificate problems, probably due to 
>>> my lack of knowledge or comprehension or motivation or time to 
>>> figure it all out.)
>>>
>>> Next, I purchased our own modem-router and soon discovered that with 
>>> the new router imap.comcast.net works fine in all instances on 
>>> different machines in our house.  So I set 'em all back to 
>>> imap.comcast.net recommended defaults.  Smooth sailing until...
>>>
>>> Now, after a couple or three weeks of successful use, I discover 
>>> that on my wife's machine that both  instances of Thunderbird in 
>>> separate user accounts accounts have stopped downloading emails with 
>>> imap.comcast.net.  Ubuntu MATE 18.04 kicks up little screen messages 
>>> saying that it can't connect with imap.ge.xfinity.com--which, of 
>>> course, it shouldn't now be trying to do because server settings in 
>>> both accounts are configured for imap.comcast.net
>>>
>>> Where do these gremlins reside and from whence did they come? Is it 
>>> witchcraft?  I put it to the council:  Should someone be burned at 
>>> the stake or is it only a wee misunderstanding?
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nmglug mailing list
>>> nmglug at lists.nmglug.org
>>> http://lists.nmglug.org/listinfo.cgi/nmglug-nmglug.org
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nmglug mailing list
>> nmglug at lists.nmglug.org
>> http://lists.nmglug.org/listinfo.cgi/nmglug-nmglug.org

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