firefox open blank pages when called from exo-open

[George Shuklin]

Recent update of firefox change command line for firefox. Because in xubuntu thunderbird calls exo-open, any link from thunderbird displays blank page instead of URL.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Install older version of xubuntu (trusty?)
2. update to fresh vivid (to firefox 36.0+build2-0ubuntu4)
3. Call exo-open http://ubuntu.com

expected result: website in firefox
actual result: new window of firefox with empty page

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: exo-utils 0.10.2-4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.18.0-13.14-generic 3.18.5
Uname: Linux 3.18.0-13-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.16.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Mon Mar 2 12:16:38 2015
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-07-19 (590 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130423.1)
SourcePackage: exo
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2014-09-26 (156 days ago)

[George Shuklin (george-shuklin)]

I think problem is in the file /usr/share/xfce4/helpers/firefox.desktop

It call firefox with:

X-XFCE-Commands=%B -remote "openURL(about:blank,new-window)";%B;
X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=%B -remote "openURL(%s)";%B "%s";

[George Shuklin (george-shuklin)]

I replaced last line it with
X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=%B %s";%B "%s";

and it works!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[ajgreeny (ajg-charlbury)]

I also had this problem, not only with links in Thunderbird but also in Libreoffice documents, which both opened Firefox at my chosen homepage, not the link URL.
I have always changed my Preferred Application setting in XFCE Settings-manager to firefox rather than Debian Sensible Browser which is the default, and this never before caused any problem. With the upgrade to FF36 this seems to have broken.
Changing the Preferred Application back to Debian Sensible Browser seems to have fixed this and links are again opening in Firefox to the URL of the clicked link.
I have not tested George Shuklin's solution above yet, but will investigate later.

I have responded to a Ubuntuforum post with this and previous workarounds for this problem
See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2267439

I am using Xubuntu 14.04.2 64bit.
uname -a output:-
Linux XubuntuTrusty 3.13.0-46-generic #76-Ubuntu SMP Thu Feb 26 18:52:13 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[george t (t-georgee)]

As someone mentioned, changing to X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=%B %s";%B "%s"; does the trick. Distribution xubuntu 14.04 64bit.

[Xwarman (xwarman)]

I have the same problem with Xubuntu 14.04 x32
and changing the o.g. line does NOT WORK. What can I do?