Thunderbird Debian 7.4 - Can't get the command symbolic link working [closed]

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I'm installing thunderbird 24.4.0 on Debian 7.4. A very easy install with which I had never any issue .. but on Debian I can't launch the application

The installation is as simple as downloading the correct binaries and making a symbolink link to the main executable in /usr/bin

so I downloaded and extract the tarball

sudo tar -xjf thunderbird-24.4.0.tar.bz2 -C /opt

Application stuff is located in [b]/opt/thunderbird[/b]

jeby6372@mercure:/opt/thunderbird$ ls
application.ini     libmozalloc.so    mozilla-xremote-client
blocklist.xml       libmozsqlite3.so  omni.ja
chrome              libnspr4.so       platform.ini
chrome.manifest     libnss3.so        plugin-container
components          libnssckbi.so     precomplete
crashreporter       libnssdbm3.chk    removed-files
crashreporter.ini   libnssdbm3.so     run-mozilla.sh
defaults            libnssutil3.so    searchplugins
dependentlibs.list  libplc4.so        Throbber-small.gif
extensions          libplds4.so       ***thunderbird***
icons               libprldap60.so    thunderbird-bin
isp                 libsmime3.so      updater
libfreebl3.chk      libsoftokn3.chk   updater.ini
libfreebl3.so       libsoftokn3.so    update-settings.ini
libldap60.so        libssl3.so
libldif60.so        libxul.so

And as required in the documentation I create the symbolic link

sudo ln -s /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird

my PATH variable is:

jeby6372@mercure:/opt/thunderbird$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin:/sbin

When I issue the startup command, it fails

jeby6372@mercure:~$ thunderbird
bash: /usr/bin/thunderbird: No such file or directory
jeby6372@mercure:~$

I don't understand what's wrong. The link seems correct too :

jeby6372@mercure:~$ file /usr/bin/thunderbird
/usr/bin/thunderbird: symbolic link to `/opt/thunderbird/thunderbird

Thanks for your help in advance

Answer 1

IceDove mail client

Icedove is an opensource clone of Thunderbird. It provides the same features and installs fine on debian 7.4 with

sudo apt-get install icedove

This workaround solved the problem.