[ubuntu-za] Strange Nautilus behaviour.

[Bruce Pieterse]

On Fri 30 Dec 2011 11:37:39 SAST, Bill Cairns wrote:
>
> Some time back I must have made a mistake when I opened a .pdf file
> with Calibre - I must have left the "Always use this application for
> pdf files" box ticked. No big deal except that Nautilus won'tt change
> it back again to evince. It has associated .pdf with Calibre and
> that's that.
>
> But the problem goes further than that. I created a file - a.xyz - and
> double clicked it under Nautilus. It decided that Open Office Writer
> was the correct application for .xyz files and opened the file
> accordingly. I tried to change the default application to Geany (why
> not?), but it stubbornly insists that Open Offcie Writer was designed
> for .xyz files. So the implication is that Nautilus is not letting me
> change any associations.
>
> I have (temporarily?) fixed my .pdf problem by manually editing the
> file ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list and changing the line -
>
> application/pdf=userapp-calibre-HB71IV.desktop;evince.desktop;gimp.desktop;FBReader.desktop;inkscape.desktop;gpdftext.desktop;
>
> to -
>
> application/pdf=evince.desktop;gimp.desktop;FBReader.desktop;inkscape.desktop;gpdftext.desktop;
>
> But I am a bit wary of that file as I don't quite understand how it
> works (I don't think that Gimp should be there!). There is no "xyz" in
> this file which makes me a bit suspicious.
>
> Any ideas about why Nautilis is not doing this itself?
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>


Hi Bill,

That is strange. Have you tried resetting the default application to 
open PDF files in nautilus? This can be done by right-clicking on the 
file and selecting Properties > Open With and selecting from the Default 
Applications or Recommend Applications list.

By creating an a.xyz file on my side the default application to open it 
with is gedit.

Here is a default entry for PDF files from my mimeapps.list file, 
perhaps you can replace your entries with what I have, as my 
installation is relatively new:

[Added Associations]
application/pdf=gedit.desktop;
...

[Default Applications]
application/pdf=evince.desktop
...

After a bit of digging, it looks like it is safe to delete the ones you 
have in your home directory as gnome would fallback to the default.list 
in /usr/share/applications which actually points to 
/etc/gnome/defaults.list. I think the the ones in your home directory 
are user-defined and were set when installing an application or when you 
specifically set a default application with the "Open with" tab under 
properties.

I renamed both the mimeapps.list and mimeinfo.cache by just appending 
.bak to the file name and then tried changing the default program for a 
file, but didn't physically change it and nautilus/gnome generated a new 
mimeapps.list with 0 bytes.

I hope that helps a bit :)
-- 
Best of luck,

Bruce

-- 
Best of luck,

Bruce