No Tabs in Thunderbird

[Axics]

When I use the latest version of Greybird (3.22.9) the tabs in Thuderbird are not displayed correctly.

The correct representation should be

[andrei-a-papou]

I confirm this bug. It doesn't happen with Adwaita, for example. The tab issue is also present in the latest Firefox, in the View Certificate Details window.

[ochosi]

Not sure what to do about this as Firefox doesn't use Gtk+ directly, it just tries to render its widgets in a way that mimicks Gtk+.
If this is still Gtk+2 then I guess the murrine engine may be at fault. If it's Gtk+3 then I'm not sure what about my tab style it doesn't like.

Do any other themes also expose this bug?

[andrei-a-papou]

@ochosi no, the GTK2 version of Thunderbird doesn't have this problem. This applies only to GTK3.

In Firefox, this is rarely seen (as the broken tabs are only used under the View Certificate dialog). But in Thunderbird it makes the Preferences window almost unusable, as TB uses those tabs all over the place.

Do any other themes also expose this bug?

I only have Adwaita and Greybird installed, and Adwaita doesn't break Thunderbird tabs. Sure, it looks ugly overall, but at least they are visible :) See @Axics's screenshot above.

I'd be willing to do some testing to help fix this.

[jEsuSdA]

@ochosi there is some GTK+ styles that are applied to Firefox and Thunderbird.
For example, I added this code to greybird css

separator { color: #e3e3e3;}
To avoid black lines separators in Thunderbird and Firefox popup menu.

I mean, maybe it would be possible to solve the Thunderbird tabs bug using GTK+ CSS rules.

[andrei-a-papou]

after some fiddling with userChrome.css, turns out it's possible to fix it on the Thunderbird end.

[stefson]

Can you please share these css tweaks?

[andrei-a-papou]

@stefson Sure, I was going to, just needed to tweak the border color of inactive tabs a bit. Put the code below into your chrome/userChrome.css and restart Thunderbird.

/* fix broken GTK3 tabs in some dialog windows */
#MailPreferences tab,
#certmanager tab,
#certDetails tab {
    -moz-appearance: none !important;
    box-sizing: content-box !important;

    background-color: #c1c1c1 !important;

    border-style: solid !important;
    border-width: 1px !important;
    border-bottom-width: 0 !important;
    border-color: #9c9c9c !important;

    margin: 2px 0 0 0 !important;
    padding: 5px 12px !important;
}

#MailPreferences tab[selected="true"],
#MailPreferences tab[visuallyselected="true"],
#certmanager tab[selected="true"],
#certmanager tab[visuallyselected="true"],
#certDetails tab[selected="true"],
#certDetails tab[visuallyselected="true"] {
    -moz-appearance: none !important;
    box-sizing: content-box !important;

    background-color: #cecece !important;

    border-top: 3px #398ee7 solid !important;
    border-bottom: 1px #cecece solid !important;
    border-left-color: #7f7f7f !important;
    border-right-color: #7f7f7f !important;

    margin-bottom: -1px !important;
    margin-top: 0 !important;
    padding-bottom: 6px !important;
}

#MailPreferences tab + tab,
#certmanager tab + tab,
#certDetails tab + tab {
    -moz-appearance: none !important;
    box-sizing: content-box !important;
    margin-left: -1px !important;
}

#MailPreferences tabs + tabpanels,
#certmanager tabs + tabpanels,
#certDetails tabs + tabpanels {
    -moz-appearance: none !important;
    border: 1px #7f7f7f solid !important;
}

Result:

[jEsuSdA]

Thanks a lot!! ;)

[andrei-a-papou]

@jEsuSdA you are welcome :) Updated the code and screenshot above to reflect the final version I've settled for.

[jobisoft]

Is there any way to include this fix so that users do not have to apply it on themself? It does not happen on all Linux, just some like XFCE. Is that a bug in Thunderbird?

Edit: I does not(!) happen on all Linux, just some ...

[bluesabre]

Thunderbird 68 (maybe earlier) replaced the preferences dialog with a web-based one, and now the tabs are drawn by the browser. See the below screenshot.

As a result, these changes should not longer be needed.

[andrei-a-papou]

In Firefox (which also has a web-based prefs window) there's also a GTK+ View Certificate dialog that uses tabs. I don't have Thunderbird 68+, so I can't check. But it very well may be the same with TB.

[Axics]

As mentioned before, Thunderbird has replaced the settings dialog with a web-based one. So this works now :)