xdg-open fails to identify mime-type except by extension

[Jesdisciple]

Binary package hint: xdg-utils

Ubuntu 8.10
xdg-utils 1.0.2-6

On my system, using xdg-open to access any directory from within the environment (regardless of privileges) prepared by sudo results in the following output:
> Warning: unknown mime-type for "<directory>" -- using "application/octet-stream"
> Error: no "view" mailcap rules found for type "application/octet-stream"
A similar response is returned for text files without extensions. .diff and .txt are opened in less; .sh only triggers an error:
> Error: no "view" mailcap rules found for type "application/x-sh"

Another user reported the first output a few months ago at Bug #323710, and I suspect that a similar factor persists on his system as is produced by sudo on mine. I don't yet have a clue how sudo modifies my environment to trigger this bug.

The strange application choices for known file types are also significant, but I'm not sure whether they are part of this bug.

An exploration of the original symptom (triggered by directories) is available at [ http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7079723 ].

Thanks!
Chris

[stevepowell99 (steve-promente)]

same here - I am using intrepid with awesome window manager but I get it with or without sudo. Exactly the same error message etc

[danmb (danmbox)]

This bug seems abandoned, though there are still mailcap problems in Lucid. The reliance on mailcap is addressed in #220765, so marking as duplicate