[SOLVED] Cannot change default applications or file associations

[remnil]

Hey everyone. I recently upgraded to Fedora 15 and am super-happy with it. Unfortunately, I have a minor issue that I haven't yet figured out how to fix: I can't change the default applications or the file type associations. For instance, I'd like to set Chromium as my default browser. When I first login, I tell it to set itself as default. But after I end my session and log back it, Firefox is back to being the default browser.

I have the same issues when trying to change what applications open filetypes. .rtf files have been opening in Wordpad in Wine. When I try to change it to Writer through the "Open with" dialog, it retains the change for that session but resets after I log out. I actually ended up having to uninstall Calibre because it was opening .odt files instead of LibreOffice and I couldn't change it permanently.

Any thoughts on how I can fix this issue? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Miikka]

Chromium problem: System Settings -> System Info -> Default Applications
File type problem: Nautilus -> Right click file -> Properties -> Open With

[remnil]

Hi Miikka. Thanks for responding. I've actually done both those things, several times. And they work for the current session. The problem is that the changes reset once I log out.

[nonamedotc]

Try editing the following files.

/home/yourusername/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

You can assign the default applications here.

Alternatively, you could also edit

/home/yourusername/.local/share/applications/defaults.list

-or-

/usr/share/applications/defaults.list.

I believe, if you edit the /usr/share ... it will change the default associations for all users while the one in your home folder will change only for you. I do not know why the same file or smaller versions of the file in /usr/share/... is found in home folder.

Hope this helps.

---------- Post added at 09:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 AM ----------

EDIT:
Looking at your problem, I think you might have to edit the file under /usr/share ...

---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 AM ----------

Further edit:

Sorry for multiple edits ... Perhaps, this is what you might need to add

application/rtf=wine-extension-rtf.desktop

[remnil]

Thanks! Editing the file under /usr/share did the trick. I changed all of the instances of "openoffice.org" to "libreoffice" and "mozilla-firefox" to "chromium-browser". I also added "application/rtf=libreoffice-writer.desktop". I still can't set Chromium as the default browser, but that's not a big deal. Thanks again!

[nonamedotc]

Glad that you were able to solve the problem. Could you please mark the thread as 'SOLVED'. Thanks.