Default file handlers can't be normally changed.

Bug #231821 reported by Raziel-chan
38
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Mozilla Firefox
Invalid
Medium
firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Binary package: firefox-3.0 (ver. 3.0~5+nobinonly-0ubuntu3)
System: Ubuntu 8.04 running KDE 3.5.9 from Kubuntu-desktop 1.75.

The problem lies in the file handlers. For my install of firefox the preferences>applications tab was indeed filled up with applications, but the effects weren't that great.

Detailed descriptions:
1. Firefox marked some applications as default. I found no way to change it but to uninstall them, what wasn't possible for, for example, file roller, as that would uninstall the whole ubuntu-desktop package. Even then the applications added by me weren't marked as default.
2. Directly linked with the previous point. The downloads window (or download manager, however one likes to call it) is working strictly in compliance with the applications list... Selecting the default applications. As this, there is no way to change its behaviour than to uninstall them, what brings up another linked problem described in the following point.
As an example, I've set up firefox to automatically download and open .zip files in Ark. This worked fine and the files were opened in ark, but when I opened the same files from the downloads window, they were opened in File Runner, the application marked as default that can't be removed without removing the whole Ubuntu-desktop package.
3. After removing transmission, which was the application marked as the default one by firefox, I got the 'choose an application' dialogue for the downloaded torrent files (but only in the downloads window) and selected ktorrent marking the remember this setting checkbox. While it worked for the torrent file in the download manager, it added a strange association to the applications tab: Now the file type 'file' is set to 'always open with ktorrent'.
4. (Already filed as bug 220504 ) Some file types, for example the already mentioned torrent files, have no application selection dialogue if their handling is set to 'always ask'. Torrent files, despite having two applications present in the applications menu (now it's only one and it still doesn't work), were given only the simplest 'cancel-save' dialogue. I found no way to change it.

Already tried solution involving removing the mimetypes.rdf file from the profile folder. The only thing it changed was that several file types disappeared completely from the applications menu and I had to restore the file to get them back.

Revision history for this message
Raziel-chan (razielchan) wrote :

After a quick sanity check I came to a discovery that the bug in the fourth point is inconsistent between various sites. On one site .torrent files are greeted with the limited save-cancel dialogue, while on two others they are greeted by a full open file dialogue. Still, despite ktorrent being listed in the applications menu, the dialogue forces the user to browse the file system to find it. Furthermore, it doesn't remember the selected application, so I have to browse for it the next time I open such a file. It doesn't even remember it if I check the 'apply automatically' checkbox.

Revision history for this message
Raziel-chan (razielchan) wrote :

Another update: I have found out that the dialogue for opening torrent files works in an even stranger way. In the applications menu I've set Firefox up to always use ktorrent, but the dialogue still appears, with the browse button present. Still, If I won't click the browse button and just click open, it'll download the file and open it in ktorrent. It's like if the whole handler system is broken or bugged.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote : Re: [Bug 231821] Re: Default file handlers can't be normally changed.

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 03:30:17PM -0000, Raziel-chan wrote:
> Another update: I have found out that the dialogue for opening torrent
> files works in an even stranger way. In the applications menu I've set
> Firefox up to always use ktorrent, but the dialogue still appears, with
> the browse button present. Still, If I won't click the browse button and
> just click open, it'll download the file and open it in ktorrent. It's
> like if the whole handler system is broken or bugged.
>

Please install live headers extension and capture http headers using
it for

 1) the case where the full dialog is opened
 2) the case where just the save dialog appears.

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

Alexander Sack (asac)
Changed in firefox-3.0:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Scott Ritchie (scottritchie) wrote :

My guess is it has something to do with whether or not the server is reporting the correct (or any) mime type.

Should we be relying on the server for that or guessing it locally using something like shared-mime-info?

Revision history for this message
Michael Lustfield (michaellustfield) wrote :

Can you try this in Ubuntu 8.10 and tell us if the problem still occurs?

Revision history for this message
Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

 We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

Changed in firefox-3.0:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
andter (andter) wrote :

I am having the same problem with ktorrent and open dialog, firefox doesn't remember in FF 3.05 and Xubuntu 8.04

Revision history for this message
Morriz (modrama) wrote :

I am having the same problem: the firefox download window on ubuntu 8.10 doesn't comply with any of the user settings. Why?

Revision history for this message
Jack Wasey (jackwasey) wrote :

I am using FF 3.1, and downloading zip files from http://www.dafont.com

I choose open with file-roller, and NOT to ask again. It asks me again every time.

Revision history for this message
In , Camaleón (noelamac) wrote :

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.5; Linux) KHTML/3.5.9 (like Gecko) SUSE
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; es-ES; rv:1.9.0.9) Gecko/2009041500 SUSE/3.0.9-2.2 Firefox/3.0.9

I cannot find a way to change the default app for helper applications.

So in Gnome I have Evince as "default" app to open PDF files and in KDE I have
kghostscript, but I cannot change them to another apps of my choice.

The issue here is that I can easily "add" another applications to handle any
mime extension but cannot change the "default" one.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Just go to "Edit / preferences / programs"
Actual Results:
I see "kghostscript" listed as "default" pdf handler application

Expected Results:
I would like to choose what application is marked as "default", i.e., "kpdf"

Related bugs:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=397700
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418830
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=434596

Revision history for this message
In , Skippy le Grand Gourou (lecotegougdelaforce) wrote :

Thanks for reporting, this is definitely painful, as in addition the download window (in Firefox Tools menu) does not allow to choose between the default app or another.

The current way to do it seems to be to edit the mimeTypes.rdf file (see http://kb.mozillazine.org/MimeTypes.rdf), but that's quite tricky for the end user, and this file is quite obscure (for instance the default app for PDFs is acroread but there's nothing concerning acroread in this file so for the moment I don't see how to change it…).

Seems like we are not few to think that, see also this related wishlist :
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492276

Revision history for this message
In , Camaleón (noelamac) wrote :

Yes, it's pretty annoying :-(

I already managed to solve this for my openSUSE 10.3 installation (not sure the workaround can be used in others distributions, though...) following these "rudimentary" steps:

In my case, firefox was using "as default" app for opening pdf files "kghostscript" and I wanted "kpdf".

I openned "/usr/share/applications/defaults.list" and searched for any
application to handle pdfs. There was no one defined there so I edited that file by adding at the bottom:

***
application/pdf=kpdf.desktop
***

Then, I copied "kpdf.desktop" file from "/opt/kde3/share/applications" to "/usr/share/applications" and restarted firefox.

After that, the default application to handle pdf is now kpdf.

But this, definitively, has to be enhanced so users can make the tweak in just two clicks :-)

Revision history for this message
In , Skippy le Grand Gourou (lecotegougdelaforce) wrote :

Actually this is quite weird. I deleted my mimeTypes.rdf and it still proposed acroread as default for PDFs.

Then I figured out that xdg-mime gave acroread as default application, though for some random reason xdg-open opened it with evince (seems to be a known silly behaviour, just google on "xdg-mime xdg-open"). So I completely deleted my /usr/share/applications/defaults.list which anyway was full of junk. xdg-mime now shows nothing. But yet, firefox stills comes up with acroread as default for PDFs.

It reminds me the famous song :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Came_Back

I will try your suggestion, but regarding that deleting this file didn't remove acroread I doubt it will help…

Revision history for this message
In , Skippy le Grand Gourou (lecotegougdelaforce) wrote :

(In reply to comment #3)
> I will try your suggestion, but regarding that deleting this file didn't remove
> acroread I doubt it will help…

It doesn't. I give up, no time to investigate.

Revision history for this message
In , Skippy le Grand Gourou (lecotegougdelaforce) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Skippy le Grand Gourou (lecotegougdelaforce) wrote :

This painful bug is not Ubuntu-related, see for instance https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=490431

Please report upstream.

I am not sure about the procedure in such a case, so I reopen this bug anyway…

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Invalid → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Skippy le Grand Gourou (lecotegougdelaforce) wrote :

Well actually, if I can confirm I will rather confirm… ;-)

Revision history for this message
Micah Gersten (micahg) wrote :

Has anyone tried this in a new profile? Also, can someone with the problem try with Firefox 3.5?

Sometimes Firefox profiles can become corrupt and/or extensions can conflict. Could you please try this with a new profile and see if the problem still exists? You do not need to delete your old profile to test. If this helps, you might want to try to disable all your extensions and re-enable them one by one until you find the problematic one.

You can start the profile manager with the following command:
firefox -ProfileManager

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Changed in firefox:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
In , Cervino (cervino) wrote :

I am as well unable to change default applications.

firefox: 3.5.9
os: opensuse 11.1 with up-to-date patches
window manager: fvwm2

There are at least two additional problems for viewing pdf files (I did not
check other file types):

(1) I do not use the Acrobat browser plugin to view a pdf file. Instead I
    launch an external application. For pdf files, this is my own script
    "view_pdf_file" that basically starts xpdf. This script is shown as
    default application in preferences -> applications for mime types
    application/pdf and application/x-pdf. For both mime types, the setting is
    "Always ask". After clicking on a pdf file in a web page, the usual dialog
    pops up asking me what to do with the pdf file. If I choose "Open with
    'view_pdf_file (default)'", the pdf file is downloaded but opened with
    Acrobat reader!

(2) If, after clicking on a pdf file, I explicitly browse for my script
    view_pdf_file to display the pdf file, the pdf file is actually displayed
    by xpdf (as expected). For each consecutive download of a pdf file, the
    dialog initially offers me "Open with 'view_pdf_file'". If I decide to
    save a pdf file, the next time the dialog opens, the "Save File" option is
    initially selected (as expected). However, at the same time, the
    (unselected) "Open with" list box shows "view_pdf_file (default)" which
    starts the Acrobat reader. Hence, upon switching from a save operation
    back to a view operation, I am forced to reselect the application for
    viewing.

Changed in firefox:
importance: Unknown → Medium
Revision history for this message
Alexander Karatarakis (alexkaratarakis) wrote :

Still an issue in firefox 3.6.10 (maverick's version). Even though i have deluge as default application, firefox insists on launching transmission.

Revision history for this message
In , Tyler Downer (tyler-downer) wrote :

Reporter, please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later in a fresh profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). Also update your plugins (flash, adobe reader, java, quicktime, silverlight, etc.) Go to the developer's website and download the latest version from there. If you no longer see this issue, please close this bug as RESOLVED, WORKSFORME. If you do see the bug, please post a comment.

Revision history for this message
In , Alexander Karatarakis (alexkaratarakis) wrote :

I tested with torrents - Transmission is default Ubuntu app but i wanted to use deluge:
- If i choose "Open with" and select deluge-gtk from /usr/bin then the behaviour is the expected one.
- If i choose "Save File" and then from the Downloads window open the torrent file then transmission is launched instead. Just to clarify, i have selected deluge as my default torrent application, so opening the torrent from nautilus will use deluge. Only opening the torrent file from the Downloads window will behave improperly.

Revision history for this message
In , Camaleón (noelamac) wrote :

Well, I just have tested with the latest stable upstream (3.6.12) and although the default application cannot still be changed, when the user adds another helper app and selects it ("open with → another app") this setting remains for the next sessions and so "virtually" changing the default app.

I think this bug can be marked as "resolved, worksforme" as per comment #7.

For users (like in comment 8) experiencing additional problems with download manager and the associated helper app I think another bug report should be open to avoid messing up both things.

Changed in firefox:
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
In , Cervino (cervino) wrote :

I'm using firefox 3.6.12 on an up-to-date opensuse 11.1 system. Unfortunately, my comment #6 also holds for this version of firefox, I cannot detect any changes. I use the "Always ask" action and for both firefox versions examined, i.e., 3.5.9 and 3.6.12 the chosen action was saved for the next "Opening" dialog. Hence, I agree, one can live with this. But the problems described persist. So I wonder why this bug was closed.

Revision history for this message
In , Camaleón (noelamac) wrote :

@comment #10
This bug has been closed because the ability to change the default helper app is now possible, meaning you can add the desired path to the binary of the application you want to be run and that setting is kept afterwards (you can either directly open the file with the desired app or you can choose "always ask" and then select it from there -the last helper application selected it becomes the default one for later actions-).

And this is what this bug is all about, just making the desired app as the "default" one.

Revision history for this message
dino99 (9d9) wrote :

This is no more a supported version

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Duplicates of this bug

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.