Xchat open links in mozilla not firefox

[Markus Golser]

Binary package hint: xchat

Hi I use the current xchat 2.6.6-0ubuntu2 version from edgy. If I do "Open Link In Browser" xchat launches mozilla and not firefox. I set firefox as my default browser using gnome-default-applications-properties.

[Micah Cowan (micahcowan)]

Please give the output of:

echo $BROWSER
update-alternatives x-www-browser

[Markus Golser (golserma)]

echo $BROWSER

update-alternatives x-www-browser
update-alternatives: unknown argument `x-www-browser'

ls -la /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 2006-09-16 14:25 /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser -> /usr/bin/mozilla

update-alternatives --list x-www-browser
/usr/bin/firefox
/usr/bin/mozilla
/usr/bin/opera

[Markus Golser (golserma)]

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

Fixed the problem for me.

[Micah Cowan (micahcowan)]

I should have said update-alternatives --display x-www-browser. :/

I'm rejecting this bug, for the time being, as it seems the correct way to set the default web browser is probably to use the alternatives system rather than the gnome-default-applications-properties, although it is not crystal clear to me that this is in fact the case.

It seems to me, though, that there ought to be better interoperability between gnome-default-applications-properties and the alternatives system; I will start a discussion of this issue in sounder.

[Sami Haahtinen (ressu)]

Even though this bug has been rejected, i'll jump in ;)

how about making xchat depend on xdg-utils and call xdg-open instead of x-www-browser. xdg-open is aimed to be a generic replacement to gnome-open and alike.

It should use the preferred applications to open the URL you want, instead of using the system default.

[Micah Cowan (micahcowan)]

On Thu, Sep 21, 2006 at 03:38:34PM -0000, Sami Haahtinen wrote:
> how about making xchat depend on xdg-utils and call xdg-open instead of
> x-www-browser. xdg-open is aimed to be a generic replacement to gnome-
> open and alike.

I actually over-simplified: it calls sensible-browser, which /usually/
calls x-www-browser.

> It should use the preferred applications to open the URL you want,
> instead of using the system default.

You have a point. Although sensible-browser/x-www-browser actually does
use the "preferred application" as specified by the user... but it is
necessarily a browser. xdg-open would allow us to remove that assumption
and make more intelligent choices about which app to open.