Default handler lookup by extension fails

[Till Kamppeter]

Binary package hint: firefox

When I click on a link to an architecture-dependent package (_amd64.deb, _i386.deb) I get a dialog which suggests to open the file with Software Center, but if I click on an architecture-independent package (_all.deb) it is considered a file type which is never heard about, suggesting to simply save it or to browse for a program in the local file system. Also architecture-independent DEB packages should be installable with Software Center by simply clicking them.

This should be simple to fix and it should not break anything, so it could still be done for Natty.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Example link

http://www.openprinting.org/download/printdriver/debian/dists/lsb3.2/main/binary-amd64/openprinting-ppds-postscript-lanier_20110330-1lsb3.2_all.deb

or click "20110330 (DEB for LSB 3.2)" in the gray box on

http://www.openprinting.org/driver/Postscript-Lanier/

This worked correctly in Maverick.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

So, what is happening here is that the mimetype of the attachment is application/x-debian-package, which isn't a registered mimetype according to glib. In this case, FIrefox is meant to fallback to looking up via extension type (and it does correctly map the .deb extension to application/x-deb, which is a registered mimetype), but the fallback case is totally broken

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I bet if the mimetype of the deb file according to the server was application/x-deb, then it would work :)

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Ok, I just confirmed this by attaching the file to this bug report and setting the mimetype to application/x-deb, and this works :)

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have now changed the configuration of the OpenPrinting web server to use application/x-deb as mime type for Debian packages, by modifying /etc/mime.types and restarting Apache. Note that the OpenPrinting web server runs Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS. I have checked Natty and there /etc/mime.types has still application/x-debian-package. After the change and clearing the Firefox cache on the Natty client the packages are treated correctly.

But anyway, the Firefox problem should get fixed, and also /etc/mime.types in Ubuntu.

[Charles Plessy (plessy)]

Conversely, what can be corrected is the absence of programs that declare that they handle application/x-debian-package. I see that for instance "MimeType=application/x-deb;application/x-debian-package;" in /usr/share/applications/gdebi.desktop.