Default browser settings not honored

[inode77]

In XFCE4 "Preferred Applications" chromium-browser is set as default.

Using "update-alternatives" chromium-browser is set as default.
# update-alternatives --get-selections | grep -i www-browser
gnome-www-browser auto /usr/bin/chromium-browser
x-www-browser manual /usr/bin/chromium-browser

Now some links are opened in chromium-browser. (XFCE Terminal, XFCE help....)

But lots of applications e.g. thunderbird, rxvt-unicode,... open the http and https links in firefox.

Where does this behaviour come from.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: xfce4 (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Oct 21 09:50:40 2011
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111011)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xfce4
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[inode77 (simon-gerber)]

Replaced "firefox.desktop" with "chromium-browser.desktop" in both files to get the desired behaviour.
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list
/usr/share/xubuntu/applications/defaults.list

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Darian Anthony Patrick (darianapatrick)]

Modifying these files doesn't seem like a very good solution. The XFCE4 preferences infrastructure settings set by the user still are not respected.

If I want to switch back to Firefox (or some other browser), I have to modify these package managed files. This is much less than ideal.

[Bingo Tailspin (bingotailspin)]

Editing the files does work, thanks! The Settings > Settings Manager > Preferred Applications > Web Browser GUI should be removed. It does not set the preferred web browser for Thunar or for Thunderbird. bug #794720 is talking about editing the local user preferences files and that does not fix the problem. You have to edit the /usr/share files as described in #1 comment above.

[deezer (deezerdeezer)]

Editing the files worked for me as well. I was having problems with Novell GroupWise opening the links in the correct browser in XFCE / Linux in Xubuntu 11.10, but this fixed it.

Thanks - and hopefully this can be fixed in the GUI