By default, firefox won't open some txt files

[Pablo Castellano]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Intrepid alpha6 fully updated.

By default, firefox won't open some txt files.
You can reproduce it:
1- Go to http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5469447&postcount=5
2- Click on the bottom attached file "xorg.conf"
3- Choose open (note that you'll open it with a text editor by default)

Firefox says that the default application to view this file doesn't exist.
The file is saved to /tmp.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: firefox 3.0.2+build3+nobinonly-0ubuntu2
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=es_ES.UTF-8
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-3-generic i686

[mmomjian (matthew-momjian)]

Confirming, same versions as you.

[Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano)]

The same happens with .tar.gz files which should be opened by file-roller.

Try it here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+source/update-manager/1:0.93.17
downloading "update-manager_0.93.17.tar.gz (2.1 MiB)"

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

The first example isnt a txt file to start with and if you download it it will open see screenshot

[Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano)]

@John Vivirito: you need to be registered in order to download the txt file.

[Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano)]

It's still present today in Intrepid fully updated.

[Nick Booker (nmbooker)]

Some further debugging if it helps...
Perhaps the below is unrelated - it appears more of a side effect or another bug uncovered by the presence of the original.

I can open and read the file downloaded to /tmp in vi or gedit.

If I double-click the entry in Firefox's Downloads manager (which is marked as Failed by the way), the file attempts to re-download and then I get a different error:
 /tmp/UbuntuCodeofConduct-1.0.1.txt could not be saved, because you cannot change the contents of that folder.

 Change the folder properties and try again, or try saving in a different location.

So checking permissions...
/tmp has drwtrwtrwt.
/tmp/UbuntuCodeOfConduct-1.0.1.txt is, for some reason, read-only:
-r-------- 1 nick nick 4606 2009-02-21 17:50 /tmp/UbuntuCodeofConduct-1.0.1.txt

A chmod u+w /tmp/UbuntuCodeOfConduct-1.0.1.txt, and double-click on the file entry in the Downloads list again, a new entry appears in the Download list, not marked as failed this time, and if I then double-click that the file opens in gedit, as I would have expected.

My boss John has looked at this, and found that if you manually specify gedit or gvim as application (by clicking the drop-down and selecting "Other...") the appropriate app opens the file successfully.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner. You reported this bug some time ago and there have been many changes in Ubuntu and Firefox since that time.

Do you still see a problem related to the one that you reported using currently supported versions of Firefox and Ubuntu? Please let us know if you do and in which version of Ubuntu otherwise this report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

Thank you for helping make Ubuntu better.

Paul White
[Ubuntu Bug Squad]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for firefox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]