1) Install a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) [emerge|pkg_add|aptitude|urpmi|rpm|yum|...] postfix 2) Go to your thunderbird profile directory into your local mail folder cd ~/.thunderbird/XXXXXXXX.default/Mail/Local\ Folders/ # XXXXXXX is random 2) Create a symbolic link to your system mailmox ln -s /var/mail/USER system-mail # where USER is your system username # and system-mail is the new mail sub-folder in thunderbird "LOCAL"