missing mimeapps.list for cosmic

[Scott Cowles Jacobs]

Previous to 18.10, there was an extensive defaults.list provided in lubuntu-default-settings. In lieu of this, the one from default-file-utils in /usr/share/applications takes precedence and it has many inappropriate settings for Lubuntu. We ship /etc/xdg/xdg-Lubuntu/mimeapps.list but it is nowhere near complete. Consistent with the current XDG spec, we should probably use mimeapps.list.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Try as I've might, I am not able to duplicate this. Can you provide some clear instructions on how to do so?

[Alf Gaida (agaida)]

The point is:
> At some point after I installed Lubuntu Next, and some favorite applications to supplement or replace those in the default install, I noticed some strange file associations...

"Normal" behaviour, nothing one can do - some new applications are installed and they will bring some filehandlers - the latest installed handler will win - hmm, maybe only if it is full moon or so.

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

OK.

I have now re-purposed one of my previous distro-partitions, and
did a minimal install of Lubuntu Next, as I did before.

Upon booting into the new install, the odd file-associations are already there.

Any file that is pure text (.txt .cpp .h ... ) defaults to LibreOffice Writer
instead of featherpad.

Any file that is an image (.jpg .png ... ) defaults to nomacs instead of LXImage.
(Admittedly, nomacs is an image-related app, but one more often wants to LOOK AT an image than EDIT it.)

.pdf files default to LibreOffice Draw, instead of qpdfview.

Audio/video files mostly default to SMPlayer, but .ogg comes up as "Enqueue in SMPlayer"

---------------

Where do file-type vs application ("mime-types"?) associations come from?

Does Qt first default them, or is it LXQt?
Most of these applications are LXQt-related apps, so presumably if Qt defaulted
to one app, but LXQt used another, then LXQt would modify the associations to point at their apps.
Presumably, if Lubuntu [Next] wanted to use a different app, it would also modify the associations [re-]set by LXQt.

What system is in place - does Lubuntu [Next] do any of the setting, or do they just pass on what comes from LXQt?

Obviously, I can "repair" any odd defaults, but new users will be confused if they try to look at a .pdf file and a drawing program comes up (especially when it displays "This PDF file is encrypted and can't be opened."), or if a text file comes up in a word processor...

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

To be fair, "Lubuntu Next" is not a product we really offer. We never did release it, except as an alpha/beta. It was often very confused, leading to problems like what you mentioned. For the Cosmic cycle, Lubuntu is fully LXQt. That said, you might want to use the Cosmic daily and see what you find. If there's still a problem, you can file something against lubuntu-default-settings.

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

Well, even though there will be no "Lubuntu Next" ongoing, as you point out, the ongoing Lubuntu will be fully LXQt.

Unless you plan to use completely different [LX]Qt apps in Lubuntu than were used in Lubuntu Next, or completely re-write them, then it must be assumed that the same apps will be used in L as in LN (different versions, possibly, as things are improved/repaired).
Thus, if bugs are not reported and fixed in the LN apps, then they will still be present in L.
Therefore, it seems completely relevant to me that we report and fix bugs in LN apps, even if there will be no LN in which to include them.

I can see that there might be a problem as to WHERE to report them...
Reporting them under Lubuntu Next could be seen as irrelevant (as you appear to do),
as there will be no more Lubuntu Next.
But likewise, reporting them under Lubuntu may also be considered irrelevant, as they are not USED in Lubuntu (currently).
[for instance, reporting a bug for qpdfview under Lubuntu might cause some scratching of heads, and might well elicit a comment that "Lubuntu doesn't USE qpdfview - we use Evince (or whatever .pdf viewer Lubuntu was using)"]

Knowing now (?) the schedule for Lubuntu's switchover from LXDE to LXQt, is there any official advice as to where to file bugs for apps that WERE for Lubuntu Next, but WILL BE for Lubuntu?

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Lubuntu Cosmic will be, in many ways, very different from Lubuntu Next in all sorts of ways, including some apps. Suffice it to say, Lubuntu never actually supported a released version of LXQt. Cosmic is in development. If you want to test Lubuntu and LXQt, Cosmic is the place to do it.

If your issues are more with LXQt in general, then that is a different ball of wax altogether. Taking the LXDE version of Lubuntu and installing LXQt metapackages on it will result in a different experience. Unfortunately, that's not something the Lubuntu team does much heavy testing with, but upstream (LXQt themselves) may be able to help. There shouldn't be a lot of differences there, but artwork, settings, and additional apps will be different.

Regarding where to file bugs, this is not the appropriate place to discuss it. The <email address hidden> and/or <email address hidden> might be more appropriate. However, I will say this: if there's a bug in an app, you would generally file it against that app. The three Lubuntu-specific exceptions:
 * lubuntu-artwork
 * lubuntu-default-settings
 * lubuntu-meta (all the packages included in Lubuntu— you probably won't use this).

In your example above, filing a bug against qpdfview would be totally valid. It SHOULD be the case that qpdfview behaves as well on any desktop environment.

Here's your official advice by the way:
https://phab.lubuntu.me/w/testing/

[Alf Gaida (agaida)]

To put it straight: A "cross upgrade" from LXDE to LXQt is not recommended (with my upstream and debian hat on) - the result will be a nice "Franken-LXQt". Please keep in mind that both LXDE and LXQt are working with alternative in the packaging - so misc applications can fulfill several dependencies and recommends - and the LXDE alternatives differ from the LXQt ones. So the result will be somewhat described well by Mary Shelby :)

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

I am not sure where someone got the impression I had somehow installed Lubuntu, and then installed LXQt packages on top of it ("Taking the LXDE version of Lubuntu and installing LXQt metapackages on it will result in a different experience. Unfortunately, that's not something the Lubuntu team does much heavy testing with...")

Both for 17.10 and for 18.04, I installed Lubuntu Next from the "http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/lubuntu-next/daily-live/pending/" site, several days before the official Ubuntu release date (because both times the site stopped "daily"ing about 3-4 days before "release". This cycle, daily stopped on 4/21, and Ubuntu release was 4/26).

Pure Lubuntu Next - no Franken-LXQt.

By the way = are the first Cosmic Lubuntu dailies the continuation of the Lubuntu Next dailies - naturally to be greatly altered by the time October comes around) ?
I.E. the ~same manifest for the first daily.

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

@Walter Lapchynski (wxl)

Thank you for your advice.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Again, this is the wrong place for a Q&A session, buuuuut Lubuntu Next and Cosmic Lubuntu are NOT the same. Even fairly early in the cycle, we had made some relatively sweeping changes. To be frank, the darn thing is kind of unfriendly right now, but we're working the bugs out as quick as possible.

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

Having now installed the 05/25 daily of Cosmic (18.10) in my test partition,
I can point out several odd file associations:

Text files (.txt .h .cpp ...) default to LibreOffice Writer, not FeatherPad.

.pdf and .md (which appears to be a type of text file) default to E-book Viewer,
not qpdfview and FeatherPad, respectively.

-

Some things seem to have been mostly fixed:
Images now come up as LXImage.
Most audio/video come up as either Enqueue in SMPlayer or SMPlayer (but .mp3 files are associated with Audacious).
(I imagine all audio/video ought to be "Enqueue in ..." OR all "SMPlayer", depending on whether one thinks opening a song/video should automatically add to a sort-of "live-playlist", or should automatically interrupt what is currently playing in favor of what was just clicked-upon.)

---------------------------------------------------
$ uname -a
lsb_release -dsc
echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
Linux scott-Asus-M2N68-AM-Plus 4.15.0-22-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 16 12:15:17 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ Ubuntu Cosmic Cuttlefish (development branch)
cosmic
$ Lubuntu

$ apt-cache policy lxqt-config
lxqt-config:
  Installed: 0.13.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.13.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.13.0-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu cosmic/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

(By the way: where do the original file associations get stored?
I know that when they are changed by a user, they are put in the user's ~/.config/mimeapps.list, but where is the original master list stored?
(I did try to info or man lxqt-config-file-associations, where that info would probably be discribed, but there is apparently no manpage for it.))

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

I have now installed the release version of Lubuntu Cosmic 18.10.

I have not tested the multitude of file-associations that I did before,
as I was testing a different bug, but I will note in passing that when
I tried to display a .png file by double-clicking on it, it brought up Firefox, not LXImage...
(I think that is the released image-viewer. I am using my usual LN 17.10,
as it is the last version in which I can use the now-retired nvidia-304, which I must use, as
nouveau often screen-crashes (diagonal lines of garbage) when I attempt to use it...)

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Confirmed. FWIW, it seems that defaults.list (which is not mentioned in the XDG spec and I think may be a GNOMEish sort of thing) is the culprit, but it's easily overridden:

https://specifications.freedesktop.org/mime-apps-spec/latest/ar01s02.html

However, if you use lxqt-config-file-associations, it's waaay easier.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

BTW fix is in:

lubuntu-default-settings (19.04.2) disco; urgency=medium

  [ Hans P Möller ]
  * Set tap to click as default for touchpad

  [ Raman Sarda ]
  * Added entries for (almost) all file types to mimeapps.list

 -- Hans P Möller <email address hidden> Sat, 06 Apr 2019 20:41:56 -0300