[ubuntu-za] Strange Nautilus behaviour.

[Bill Cairns]

On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Bruce Pieterse <octoquadza at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
Hi Bruce,

Thanks for all the help.

The amazing thing (well to me it is amazing!) is that I never knew
about the option to set the default application via the Properties
selection. I have always changed the default application in the old
Windows way - Right click, open with, other application, set use this
application etc etc. Let's face it, this is a great step forward over
the obscure Windows way. (Do a search on th enet and it does not
mention the proper way but describes the "Windows" way!)

So I did use my newly gained expertise and used the option via
properties, and everything changed just like it should.

The second surprising thing to me is that I only have the "Added
Associations" in my mineapps.list file and no "Default Applications".
Or perhaps it is not so surprising - I am running 10.10 and perhaps
you have a more recent version?

Anyway, I don't want to wander too deeply into this morass and, as my
problem seems to be solved, I will worry about more urgent issues. But
thank you very much for your help!

Bill