Re: Cannot make update-alternatives do what I want
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On 2014-11-07 17:47, Christian Seiler wrote:
> Am 2014-11-07 10:32, schrieb Ken Heard:
>> In my Wheezy machine I use Iceweasel 31.2.0 as my primary web
>> browser. I also have an Lenny version -- I think -- of Iceape
>> installed because I wanted a simple html composer. Unfortunately
>> to have Iceape composer I must install Iceape suite which also
>> includes a browser.
>>
>> So both browsers are mentioned in the x-www-browser section of
>> /etc/alternatives. The Iceape browser is the "auto" selection,
>> and the Iceweasel browser is listed as a "manual" alternative.
>>
>> Command "update-alternatives --config x-www-browser" ostensibly
>> allows me to change to the preferred "manual" browser by
>> selecting it. I did so but when for example I want to go to a
>> website mentioned in an email (I use Icedove as my email client)
>> the Iceape browser is still used for that purpose. I tried
>> exiting my user and logging in again -- and also rebooting the
>> machine -- to no avail. Checking the browser selection in
>> alternatives is still the one I selected, namely Iceweasel, not
>> Iceape.
>>
>> Is there something I need to do to make this change work?
>
> Most graphical applications don't call x-www-browser to run a
> browser but rather use the freedesktop.org MIME handling mechanism
> to select the browser (that way the user can change their own
> default without having to be root and without changing the default
> of other users).
>
> If you want to set the default for all applications following the
> freedesktop.org MIME specification, you should install the
> xdg-utils package (if it's not already installed) and do the
> following (as the user you want this to happen with):
>
> xdg-mime default iceweasel.desktop x-scheme-handler/http \
> x-scheme-handler/https
>
> This will cause all XDG compliant applications to use Iceweasel as
> its default browser - but only for the user that issued that
> command.
>
> The .desktop file must be either installed in your home directory
> under ~/.local/share/applications/ or system-wide under
> /usr/share/applications.[1]
>
> It is also possible to set a system-wide default, but to my
> knowledge there is no tool available to do that directly, you
> should look at the specification as for how to do that.
>
> Note that the application that is chosen from within
> Iceweasel/Icedove is random unless a default is explicitly set,
> because they just read in all applications that support that mime
> type, and the first one they find wins. But the first one is random
> because they depend on the order the .desktop files appear in the
> directory.
>
> Note also that while xdg-mime default is respected by all major
> desktop environment software (KDE SC, GNOME, XFCE, Iceweasel/-dove,
> ...), some graphical options of setting these things (such as
> Iceweasel/-dove file associations, KDE control panel for default
> programs / file associations) will only set these settings for
> their specific environments, but not globally. But as I said: they
> will respect a global default set by xdg-mime. (I don't know about
> GNOME or XFCE, maybe those actually do set the default.)
>
> You can find the latest versions of the relevant specifications
> here:
>
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/mime-apps-spec/mime-apps-spec-latest.html
>
>
http://standards.freedesktop.org/shared-mime-info-spec/shared-mime-info-spec-latest.html
>
>
> For icedove specifically, you might also want to look at the
> following user preferences:
>
> network.protocol-handler.app.http
> network.protocol-handler.app.https
> network.protocol-handler.app.ftp
> network.protocol-handler.expose.http
> network.protocol-handler.expose.https
> network.protocol-handler.expose.ftp
>
> If those are explicitly set, they will override anything set in the
> XDG mime database.
>
> Christian
>
> [1] If you want to use KDE4 applications on Wheezy, whose desktop
> files are in a subdirectory of /usr/share/applications, this is a
> bit more complicated; you have to prefix 'kde4-' there, for example
> 'xdg-mime default kde4-konqueror.desktop x-scheme-handler/http'.
> But if you query the default ('xdg-mime query default
> x-scheme-handler/http'), it will only return 'konqueror.desktop',
> instead of the 'kde4-konqueror.desktop' that is the actual setting.
> The KDE4 packages should probably have put their .desktop files
> directly in /usr/share/applications...
>
Thanks for the information above. I will experiment with the various
options. Another problem which emerged: if that old version of Iceape
is installed I cannot install the current Wheezy version of Enigmail
unless I provide an override. Since I would not use Enigmail with
Iceape the override solution may be possible. In the short run
however the work around I described in my second post will do.
Regards, Ken
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