Snap Contains Wrong Symlink For Thunderbird

[rht53]

I do not know if this is the correct forum because the only computer I have working ATM is very flaky due to a stuff up by snap. On 25 July 2026 snap did an auto update and created a symlink for thunderbird "current" to an empty directory [1201]. As a result thunderbird and many other applications do not work correctly. The correct destination of the symling should be to "common" or to a subdirectory downstream from there. I have just done an update to snap via Discover (which since 25 July has been throwing false "failure" error messages) -- the symlink has been changed (ie, removed and recreated) to 1228, a new empty directory. My question is simple: Do I change the symlink to "common" or "common/thunderbird" or to one of the esr directories further downstream? Commonsense says "common/thunderbird" but I am disabled and cannot afford to lose those applications that are still working.

BTW, for legal reasons I cannot reinstall [k]ubuntu or snap or thunderbird on this computer.

TIA

[claydoh]

You will want to pester the Snapcraft folks, as this would be specific to this packaging, and not to any distro.

Do I change the symlink to "common" or "common/thunderbird" or to one of the esr directories further downstream?

No.

Are you sure the 1228 dir is actually empty? It has hidden dirs and files for me here. alt-period or ctrl-h in dolphin will toggle this view off and on, if you have not checked this as of yet.

The dirs in /var may be empty, but iirc are not used. Look in ~/snap/thunderbird.
This is where your user configurations would be, and are hidden.

As a result thunderbird and many other applications do not work correctly.

What do you mean by this?

My system has no issues, and Tbird runs fine on my 26.04 PC, though I don't actually use it much at all, I am a bit of a masochist and use Kmail

[rht53]

I appreciate that it is primarily a problem for the snapcraft mob but, unfortunately, I forgot to disclose that the "reporting back to snap" function is one of the things that no longer works. I apologize for this omission.

I am absolutely certain that the four-digit directories do NOT contain substantive content (i.e., contain only "." and ".."). In addition to the keyboard shortcuts mentioned by you, I have checked them all using more prosaic, old school, methods such as ls (with particular regard to the options associated with the "-l" argument).

"As a result thunderbird and many other applications do not work correctly." I am sorry but I cannot put it any simpler than this. Prior to the snap update (via Discover) mentioned in my post, applications worked. After that update many of them don't work as well as they did before, and others no longer work at all. For example, some applications now fail to launch because they cannot be found; and they are exactly where they were before; and my environmental variables are unchanged; and they can be located by "whereis", "which" and friends. Some other applications attempt to launch but fail to load properly and crash. While other applications crash so badly that they create the modern variation of the dreaded "core dump".

"My system has no issues..." With very great respect it is my system that has the issues and I was hoping that someone on this forum might be able to look at where their symlinks are, what they do, and let me know if they had any problems similar to mine. FWIW, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments regarding Tbird -- assuming that it once had some use, it passed its Use By Date (i.e., Best Before Date) a long time ago.

On a more serious note, "curl" cannot be updated because one or more of its myriad dependencies fails whatever tests Discover conducts and, as a result, it is locked in at "curl 8.21.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)".

Please, can you do an "ls -l" on the snap path at "current" and tell me the target of the symlink? I should also be grateful if anyone on the forum with similar problems could give me any advice. I am undergoing lots of testing for my rare medical condition and MUST keep this laptop operational so I cannot even back up my data and then reinstall. I need long range forensic help.

TIA

[claydoh]

You need to use -la to see hidden files and dirs:

arm@arm-mini:~$ ls -l ~/snap/thunderbird/current
lrwxrwxrwx 1 arm arm 4 Aug 24 12:26 /home/arm/snap/thunderbird/current -> 1228

arm@arm-mini:~$ ls -l ~/snap/thunderbird/1228
total 0

 ##  But using the proper switch for ls shows there are files and dirs there ##

arm@arm-mini:~$ ls -la ~/snap/thunderbird/1228
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 1 arm arm 68 Aug 24 12:26 .

​
drwxr-xr-x 1 arm arm 34 Aug 24 12:26 ..
drwx------ 1 arm arm 284 Aug 24 13:01 .config
-rw-rw-r-- 1 arm arm 32 Aug 24 12:26 .last_revision
drwxrwxr-x 1 arm arm 10 Aug 24 12:26 .local
lrwxrwxrwx 1 arm arm 38 Aug 24 12:26 .themes -> /snap/thunderbird/1228/data-dir/themes

This location has the user configs and data.
There is also /snap/thunderbird/ which is where the binaries are kept.

arm@arm-mini:~$ ls -la /snap/thunderbird/current
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Aug 24 12:25 /snap/thunderbird/current -> 1228
arm@arm-mini:~$ ls -la /snap/thunderbird/1228
total 3
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 160 Aug 20 01:40 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22 Aug 24 12:25 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 45 Aug 20 01:39 bin
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 96 Aug 20 01:40 etc
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3 Aug 20 01:40 gpu-2404
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 56 Aug 20 01:40 meta
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2970 Aug 20 01:40 patch-default-profile.py
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 79 Aug 20 01:40 snap
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 369 Aug 20 01:40 thunderbird.launcher
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 86 Aug 20 01:40 usr

/var/snap/ also has similar directories, but these will be empty, they are not being used, iirc.

I appreciate that it is primarily a problem for the snapcraft mob but, unfortunately, I forgot to disclose that the "reporting back to snap" function is one of the things that no longer works.

Ubuntu's Discourse may be the better place for snap specific issues, I think. There are no Snap "experts" here, and a very good number avoid and remove/disable snap altogether.

Prior to the snap update (via Discover) mentioned in my post, applications worked. After that update many of them don't work as well as they did before, and others no longer work at all. For example, some applications now fail to launch because they cannot be found; and they are exactly where they were before; and my environmental variables are unchanged; and they can be located by "whereis", "which" and friends. Some other applications attempt to launch but fail to load properly and crash. While other applications crash so badly that they create the modern variation of the dreaded "core dump".

Are all of these snap packages? I am thinking that they might not be.

"My system has no issues..." With very great respect it is my system that has the issues and I was hoping that someone on this forum might be able to look at where their symlinks are, what they do, and let me know if they had any problems similar to mine. FWIW, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments regarding Tbird -- assuming that it once had some use, it passed its Use By Date (i.e., Best Before Date) a long time ago.

If these were Snaps, then *everyone* , or at least a very great percentage, would be seeing the same problems with the same applications, as these are all self-contained and distro-agnostic.

On a more serious note, "curl" cannot be updated because one or more of its myriad dependencies fails whatever tests Discover conducts and, as a result, it is locked in at "curl 8.21.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)".

What are these specific failures, or error messages? That is important information. And to be honest, why are you not just using the 'stock' curl you already have by default?
By the version number, I am going to guess it is one of the third-party snap packages? The proper version of curl you already have natively is going to be 8.18.0 if you are on 26.04, and lower for previous *buntu releases.
Not even sure there is a more current version of curl, 8.21.0 is the latest available from the curl project itself.

$ apt policy curl
curl:
Installed: 8.18.0-1ubuntu2.4
Candidate: 8.18.0-1ubuntu2.4
Version table:
*** 8.18.0-1ubuntu2.4 500
500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-updates/main amd64 Packages
500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-security/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
8.18.0-1ubuntu2 500
500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages

arm@arm-mini:~$ snap search curl

Name Version Publisher Notes Summary
curl 8.21.0 aoilinux - command line tool and library for transferring data with URLs.(with HTTP3 support)
curl-metalink 7.65.2+pkg-6ea8 brlin - Download Metalinks with cURL for Debianish distros
curl-snap 7.81.0 drcoccodrillus - Transfer data from or to a server using URLs
curl-httpie 0.0.4 poitrus - HTTPie for curl — The power of curl, the ease of use of httpie.

So, to get to a baseline, let's do some basics to make sure your system itself is OK:

What is your Kubuntu version?

sudo apt update

This fetches update lists.
Report any errors, warnings, or anything you think is odd.

sudo apt full-upgrade

This installs any updated packages.
Report any errors, warnings, or anything you think is odd.

snap refresh

This updates any Snap packages.
Snaps usually self-update, not sure if they are on a timer or something else, so they do often show up in Discover.