On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 21:00:21 -0800
John Jason Jordan <[email protected]> wrote:
> Firefox is forever forgetting what programs open what kinds of files.
> Just now it has decided that .zip files should be opened in gedit. It
> used to know that it was an archive, and I don't know what might have
> caused it to suddenly decide to open .zip files in gedit.
>
> Now, if I was trying to open the .zip file in a file manager
> (Nautilus, Thunar, Dolphin, etc.) I could use the drop-down and
> select "other," which would give me a list of installed programs,
> including Archive Manager. But in Firefox the "other" option just
> lists all files in ~/. The list of files in ~/ is not useful. I need
> the binary, which is probably in /opt or some / folder.
> Unfortunately, the name of the program in the applications launcher
> menu is "Archive Manager," which I know is not the name of the
> binary. It's really difficult to search for the binary when I have no
> idea what it is called.
>
> I also tried Firefox Preferences, which lists ZIP archive. It is
> currently set to "always ask," in spite of the fact that the download
> popup window offers gedit as the default. There is a drop-down in the
> Preferences dialog box, but it behaves the same way as the file
> download popup window - that is, it just displays data files in ~/,
> not actual installed programs.
>
> I also tried about:config, but searching on "zip" didn't reveal
> anything that looked useful.
>
> It appears that my only option is to download the file, open a file
> manager, select the file, and specify to open with Archive Manager.
> After unzipping it I have to go back to the file manager and delete
> the .zip file. This is not only a waste of time, but will inevitably
> lead to orphaned zip files that I forgot to delete.
>
> Does anyone know how to tell Firefox what to open files with?
The only way to get around this annoyance (and yes, it's happened
to me, too), is to feed it the actual name for the program you
want. If you're running Gnome, it's probably
/usr/bin/file-roller. (That's what Gnome insists on calling
"Archive Manager" in the menus. Can't be confusing the poor
lusers with actual program names, now can we?) When Firefox pops
up that whutdoido? dialog box, click on browse, and type the
absolute path and filename into the address bar. Then click Open,
and Firefox should be happy. After that, FF should remember what
you did before, and will present that as the default option.
--Dale
--
"That is what I like! Little things hitting each other!"
-- Napoleon Bonaparte, "Time Bandits"
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