490431 - Unable to change "default" helper application in Firefox

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Camaleon]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.5; Linux) KHTML/3.5.9 (like Gecko) SUSE
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; es-ES; rv:1.9.0.9) Gecko/2009041500 SUSE/3.0.9-2.2 Firefox/3.0.9

I cannot find a way to change the default app for helper applications. 

So in Gnome I have Evince as "default" app to open PDF files and in KDE I have
kghostscript, but I cannot change them to another apps of my choice.

The issue here is that I can easily "add" another applications to handle any
mime extension but cannot change the "default" one.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Just go to "Edit / preferences / programs"
Actual Results:  
I see "kghostscript" listed as "default" pdf handler application

Expected Results:  
I would like to choose what application is marked as "default", i.e., "kpdf"

Related bugs:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=397700
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418830
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=434596

Comment 1

[Skippy le Grand Gourou]

Thanks for reporting, this is definitely painful, as in addition the download window (in Firefox Tools menu) does not allow to choose between the default app or another.

The current way to do it seems to be to edit the mimeTypes.rdf file (see http://kb.mozillazine.org/MimeTypes.rdf), but that's quite tricky for the end user, and this file is quite obscure (for instance the default app for PDFs is acroread but there's nothing concerning acroread in this file so for the moment I don't see how to change it…).

Seems like we are not few to think that, see also this related wishlist :
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492276

Comment 2

[Camaleon]

Yes, it's pretty annoying :-(

I already managed to solve this for my openSUSE 10.3 installation (not sure the workaround can be used in others distributions, though...) following these "rudimentary" steps:

In my case, firefox was using "as default" app for opening pdf  files "kghostscript" and I wanted "kpdf".
 
I openned "/usr/share/applications/defaults.list" and searched for any 
application to handle pdfs. There was no one defined there so I edited that  file by adding at the bottom:
 
***
application/pdf=kpdf.desktop
***
 
Then, I copied "kpdf.desktop" file from "/opt/kde3/share/applications"  to "/usr/share/applications" and restarted firefox.
 
After that, the default application to handle pdf is now kpdf.

But this, definitively, has to be enhanced so users can make the tweak in just two clicks :-)

Comment 3

[Skippy le Grand Gourou]

Actually this is quite weird. I deleted my mimeTypes.rdf and it still proposed acroread as default for PDFs.

Then I figured out that xdg-mime gave acroread as default application, though for some random reason xdg-open opened it with evince (seems to be a known silly behaviour, just google on "xdg-mime xdg-open"). So I completely deleted my /usr/share/applications/defaults.list which anyway was full of junk. xdg-mime now shows nothing. But yet, firefox stills comes up with acroread as default for PDFs.

It reminds me the famous song :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Came_Back
…

I will try your suggestion, but regarding that deleting this file didn't remove acroread I doubt it will help…

Comment 4

[Skippy le Grand Gourou]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I will try your suggestion, but regarding that deleting this file didn't remove
> acroread I doubt it will help…

It doesn't. I give up, no time to investigate.

Comment 5

[Skippy le Grand Gourou]

See also :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/396275
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/231821

Comment 6

[cervino]

I am as well unable to change default applications.

firefox: 3.5.9
os: opensuse 11.1 with up-to-date patches
window manager: fvwm2

There are at least two additional problems for viewing pdf files (I did not
check other file types):

(1) I do not use the Acrobat browser plugin to view a pdf file. Instead I
    launch an external application. For pdf files, this is my own script
    "view_pdf_file" that basically starts xpdf. This script is shown as
    default application in preferences -> applications for mime types
    application/pdf and application/x-pdf. For both mime types, the setting is
    "Always ask". After clicking on a pdf file in a web page, the usual dialog
    pops up asking me what to do with the pdf file. If I choose "Open with
    'view_pdf_file (default)'", the pdf file is downloaded but opened with
    Acrobat reader!

(2) If, after clicking on a pdf file, I explicitly browse for my script
    view_pdf_file to display the pdf file, the pdf file is actually displayed
    by xpdf (as expected). For each consecutive download of a pdf file, the
    dialog initially offers me "Open with 'view_pdf_file'". If I decide to
    save a pdf file, the next time the dialog opens, the "Save File" option is
    initially selected (as expected). However, at the same time, the
    (unselected) "Open with" list box shows "view_pdf_file (default)" which
    starts the Acrobat reader. Hence, upon switching from a save operation
    back to a view operation, I am forced to reselect the application for
    viewing.

Comment 7

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later in a fresh profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). Also update your plugins (flash, adobe reader, java, quicktime, silverlight, etc.) Go to the developer's website and download the latest version from there. If you no longer see this issue, please close this bug as RESOLVED, WORKSFORME. If you do see the bug, please post a comment.

Comment 8

[Launchpad]

Alexander Karatarakis added the following comment to Launchpad bug #231821:

I tested with torrents - Transmission is default Ubuntu app but i wanted to use deluge:
- If i choose "Open with" and select deluge-gtk from /usr/bin then the behaviour is the expected one.
- If i choose "Save File" and then from the Downloads window open the torrent file then transmission is launched instead. Just to clarify, i have selected deluge as my default torrent application, so opening the torrent from nautilus will use deluge. Only opening the torrent file from the Downloads window will behave improperly. 

-- 
http://launchpad.net/bugs/231821

Comment 9

[Camaleon]

Well, I just have tested with the latest stable upstream (3.6.12) and although the default application cannot still be changed, when the user adds another helper app and selects it ("open with → another app") this setting remains for the next sessions and so "virtually" changing the default app. 

I think this bug can be marked as "resolved, worksforme" as per comment #7. 

For users (like in comment 8) experiencing additional problems with download manager and the associated helper app I think another bug report should be open to avoid messing up both things.

Comment 10

[cervino]

I'm using firefox 3.6.12 on an up-to-date opensuse 11.1 system. Unfortunately, my comment #6 also holds for this version of firefox, I cannot detect any changes. I use the "Always ask" action and for both firefox versions examined, i.e., 3.5.9 and 3.6.12 the chosen action was saved for the next "Opening" dialog. Hence, I agree, one can live with this. But the problems described persist. So I wonder why this bug was closed.

Comment 11

[Camaleon]

@comment #10
This bug has been closed because the ability to change the default helper app is now possible, meaning you can add the desired path to the binary of the application you want to be run and that setting is kept afterwards (you can either directly open the file with the desired app or you can choose "always ask" and then select it from there -the last helper application selected it becomes the default one for later actions-).

And this is what this bug is all about, just making the desired app as the "default" one.