xdg-open doesn't properly detect Xfce/Xubuntu

[Danila Poyarkov]

xdg-open doesn't detect the XFCE desktop environment on its fresh install on Ubuntu (not Xubuntu).
I was able to fix that by adding 'elif [ x"$DESKTOP_SESSION" = x"xubuntu" ]; then DE=xfce;' line in 'detectDE()' function.

[George Kibardin (george-kibardin-deactivatedaccount)]

it seems that "xprop -root _DT_SAVE_MODE" doesn't work anymore

[Christoph Wickert (cwickert)]

Works fine for me:
$ xprop -root _DT_SAVE_MODE
_DT_SAVE_MODE(STRING) = "xfce4"

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

Reporter, what does
xprop -root _DT_SAVE_MODE
report for you then?

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

and what version of xdg-utils are you using?

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

I suppose we could fallback to try $DESKTOP_SESSION env, on my xfce-4.6 environment, it reports

$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
xfce4

(and apparently xfce 4.8 returns just 'xfce', but I'd like to confirm if you see that too)

[George Kibardin (george-kibardin-deactivatedaccount)]

xprop -root _DT_SAVE_MODE is used by xdg-open script to detect that currently running DE is xfce. For me it worked fine in xfce 4.6, but in 4.8 it doesn't work.

$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
xfce

(not xfce4)

I'm using xdg-utils 1.0.2 in Arch

[George Kibardin (george-kibardin-deactivatedaccount)]

Sorry, forgot to paste this:

$ xprop -root _DT_SAVE_MODE
_DT_SAVE_MODE: no such atom on any window.

[mkkot (marcin2006)]

Confirming this problem. I use Archlinux as the reporter. People, it's really serious, Chromium opens all files in Mozilla Firefox (!!) and Xarchiver does the same. I had to manually edit all xdg-* scripts (can't send a patch because it's a dirty hack :)

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

I'd suggestion someone with contact with xfce upstream... ask them how best to detect it.

[George Kibardin (george-kibardin-deactivatedaccount)]

mkkot, as a workaround I would suggest to make "export DE=xfce" somewhere. This act as a fallback entry for xdg-open when desktop environment isn't detected.

[Iwtcex (iwtcex)]

Bug #25941 seems to be related.

(In reply to comment #9)
> mkkot, as a workaround I would suggest to make "export DE=xfce" somewhere. This
> act as a fallback entry for xdg-open when desktop environment isn't detected.

This doesn't work since this commit: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils/commit/?id=c9551d250722081cbf7d6611f417bc597765e5c9 .

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

In retrospect, I'm unsure of the wisdom of clearing DE in that referenced commit. Perhaps that portion should be reverted (unless there was some good reason for it, that I fail to fathom).

[George Kibardin (george-kibardin-deactivatedaccount)]

(In reply to comment #11)
> In retrospect, I'm unsure of the wisdom of clearing DE in that referenced
> commit. Perhaps that portion should be reverted (unless there was some good
> reason for it, that I fail to fathom).

Totally agree, I had to remove this line so that my workaround with "export DE=xfce" could work again.

[Ja-safonau (ja-safonau)]

Commenting out this DE clearing helped me. It doesn't overwrite my "export DE=xfce" in .xinitrc. Ideally there should be a check if it was already defined manually.

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

this should hopefully do the trick:

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils/commit/?id=a9d65ff51ce0dd40cf0cb39b0f3c36dca100c527

For posterity, I would still appreciate someone investigate why/how xprop fails on some platforms and/or ping xfce upstream for a better or proper way to detect it's use.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Filipe Roque (flip-roque)]

a pacth to attempt a correction for this bug

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "bug1388922.patch" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Proper DE detection is available in upstream:

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils/tree/scripts/xdg-utils-common.in#n248

[Jamin W. Collins (jcollins)]

The patch referenced in post #17 won't correct this issue.

It's adding the following condition:
x"$DESKTOP_SESSION" = x"xfce"

However, that's not the value of DESKTOP_SESSION:

$ env | grep DESKTOP
DESKTOP_SESSION=xubuntu
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=xubuntu
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=XFCE

A more correct check would be against XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

[Michael MacEachern (maceach-b)]

Can we finally fix this please? This still isn't working correctly in 15.04, and I still have to modify xdg-open.

[Johan Gunnarsson (johang)]

Still happens on Xubuntu 15.04, but fixed upstream.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package xdg-utils - 1.1.0~rc3+git20150907-1ubuntu1

---------------
xdg-utils (1.1.0~rc3+git20150907-1ubuntu1) wily; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable. Remaining changes: (LP: #1495273)
    - debian/patches:
      * gnome-3.0.diff: Correctly open preferred browser with
        gnome-open (LP: #670128)
      * lp779156-lubuntu.diff: Add open_lxde and run_sylpheed function
        for improved LXDE and sylpheed support (LP: #779156)
      * xdg-screensaver-restore-timeout.diff: restore previous X11
        screensaver timeout when xdg-screensaver resume is used (LP: #1363540)
  * New upstream release fixes the following bugs:
    - xdg-mime query filetype does not work on KDE 5 (LP: #1454833)
    - xdg-open doesn't properly detect Xfce/Xubuntu (LP: #1388922)
    - xserver-blanking patch in Ubuntu duplicates code (LP: #1330386)
    - Typo in manpage of 'xdg-icon-resource' (LP: #996304)
    - xdg-open (to gnome-open) fails to launch file:// URL with query string
      (LP: #396162)

 -- Sean Davis <email address hidden> Sun, 13 Sep 2015 12:39:10 -0400