Cannot set a custom Mail Reader in Preferred Applications capplet

[Matt Philmon]

gnome-default-applications-properties, aka, "Preferred Applications" is supposed to allow you to set a custom Mail Reader for those like myself that use GMail for all email. However, when I click the drop-down box (which includes "Evolution Mail Reader" and "custom") and choose custom, it flashes the command window very briefly to enabled and then back to disabled immediately, keeping Evolution Mail Reader as the set option. It will not allow me to select custom as an option. As a side note, the custom option under Web Browser is working just fine.

I'm running:
Description: Ubuntu intrepid (development branch)
Release: 8.10

In particular, I'm running an Intrepid Alpha 2 release upgraded now past Alpha 3 via regular dist-upgrades.

I believe this is part of the gnome-control-center package:
gnome-control-center:
  Installed: 1:2.23.5-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:2.23.5-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.23.5-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in gnome-control-center.

For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

I can confirm this on my Intrepid system.

Thanks,

James

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

I believe this change will have had something to do with it:

2008-05-18 Thomas Wood <email address hidden>

 * gnome-da-capplet.c: Convert to use GConfPropertyEditor and remove
 a lot of duplicated code in the process.

From some investigation it seems to make the change, then compare
with what's in gconf and then somehow convinces itself to go back to
what it had before.

I imagine it's either a simple logic area, or two signals being connected,
the second triggered by whatever the first does, which then undoes the
change.

Thanks,

James

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The bug has been sent upstream on http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=545280

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug has been fixed upstream now

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-control-center - 1:2.23.6-0ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-control-center (1:2.23.6-0ubuntu1) intrepid; urgency=low

  * New upstream version:
    Appearance:
    - Make theme installation from GIO-supported sources work (including
     drag and drop)
    Default Applications:
    - Fix custom commands for mail default application (lp: #252253)
    Display:
    - Add a check box to turn on and off display icon
    - Draw rotated outputs rotated
    General:
    - Move directory deletion code from appearance capplet into common code
    - Make the file transfer dialog work with GFiles instead of gchar
      paths internally
    - Don't set notification theme to "standard" if the metatheme loaded
      doesn't define one
    Keybindings:
    - When trying to assign a shortcut that is already in use, ask the user
      whether to reassign it instead of refusing to do anything
    Shell:
    - Don't do thumbnailing, let Nautilus do it
    - Fix a build warning
    Sound:
    - Remove separate bell settings tab
    - Remove libsounds dependency
    - Add freedesktop sound theme support through libcanberra
    - Fix property passing
    - Plug some leaks
    - Add some filtering for OSS devices and create more useful device
      descriptions (lp: #252814)
  * debian/control.in:
    - build-depends on libcanberra-gtk-dev
  * debian/patches/90_from_svn_use_gio_for_themes_copies.patch:
    - the change is in the new version
  * debian/patches/105_cc-randr12-ubuntu-colors.patch:
    - change the color only there

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:46:57 +0200

[NoOp (glgxg)]

Perhaps this is an update-manager issue, but seems related:

In hardy I have the following set for Custom Browser:

/usr/local/seamonkey/seamonkey -remote openURL("%s",new-tab)
[note] this is so that I can open the update manager URL's in a new SeaMonkey tab]

and for Custom Email

/usr/local/seamonkey/seamonkey -compose

Both work just fine in hardy.

However, if I do the same in Intrepid, (clicking on the bug report in Update Manager) Firefox opens instead.

In Intrepid, clicking a URL in OpenOffice does open a new tab in SeaMonkey. Sending as an email in OpenOffice does open the SeaMonkey email compose window.

It seems that some applications can/do override the Preferred Application settngs.