GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 150080
Properties->Open WIth: Can't change default application.
Last modified: 2009-08-15 18:40:50 UTC
Right click a file, select 'Properties' and click on the 'Open With' tab. 1. If there are two or more items in the list view, I cannot change the default application. The first item in the list is always the default. 2. Click the 'Add' button and add an application. The application is not added to the list view. The properties dialog must to closed and reopened before it is displayed in the list view.
Also reproducible in nautilus 2.7.92.
Same problem in the latest rawhide.
*** Bug 150606 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm having an similar issue with nautilus 2.7.2. I can't add any default application to for example a word document (.doc)
Does your '~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list' file begin with '[MIME Cache]'? If it does, try changing that to '[Default Applications]' or delete that file altogether - It worked for me.
Works for me, 2.7.4. Marking NEEDINFO per Martin's question.
I checked the eel ChangeLog: From 2.7.4 on, '[Default Applications]' is used as group header in defaults.list. Before that '[MIME Cache]' was used. If you have a defaults.list file created before this change, all lookups to the defaults file fail until you change or delete it. So I guess this is fallout from a fixed bug in eel.
This was my problem too. Change the group header and it was working right with out a restart.
Yes, the file ${PREFIX}/share/applications/defaults.list did begin with '[MIME Cache]'. After changing the line to '[Default Applications]', I was able to change the default applications again. Maybe for backward compatibility code should be added to eel to make this change automatically? Thanks.
yeah, i'm not sure whether backward compatibility code makes a lot of sense in this case (although it's not up to me) This new mime handler code has only been released in the current development cycle and as such is BETA. I guess the guestion is is this file new to gnome-2.8 or is it a part of gnome-2.6 or earlier. If its the later then it needs to handle it, otherwise, it might be sensible to chalk this up to beta issues, rather than inserting code that only helps a limited number of testers. What might be good however, might be to have code that is capable of realizing that the file header isn't right and allowing the contents to be deleted so that it will work (even if it loses a few settings). This is busted because it can't parse the file (it's not what it expected) but it refuses to remove the files contents to allow content that will work.
AFAIK, the new mime system was introduced during the 2.6->2.8 transition, so only a very limited number of people were affected by this bug. As the system is working in nautilus 2.8, I guess this bug can be closed.
I am fine with closing this bug report.