Xdg-open should use kde-open instead of kfmclient

[Ulrik Mikaelsson]

Binary package hint: xdg-utils

In /usr/bin/xdg-open, open_kde attempts to use the kfmclient binary to open the provided URI. Kfmclient is according to Ubuntu package database (http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?searchon=contents&keywords=kfmclient&mode=exactfilename&suite=lucid&arch=any), only available in the konqueror package, and in the kdebase-dbg (only in PATH from the Konqueror package).

Neither of these two packages is a natural requirement for basic xdg-open functionality under a KDE-environment. Currently, unless the user has Konqueror installed, xdg-open falls back to open_generic sidestepping any KDE-configs.

However, KDE does have a similar utility, kde-open, which does the same thing as xdg-open, and should be used instead of kfmclient.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Francesco Belladonna (fire-dragon-dol)]

If you need a temporary fix to this issue to get xdg-open to work (lot of tools depend on it), I recommend exporting the environment variable KDE_SESSION_VERSION=5 (or 4 or 6 or whatever is your KDE version). Fixes the problem (this environment variable is entirely missing in my installation)

[Nicholas Guriev (mymedia)]

In latest KUbuntu live image, that envioronment variable is set out-of-box, and so xdg-utils correctly recognize KDE5, in particular, xdg-open uses kde-open5. I think therefore the bug may be considered fixed.