Firefox always chooses the wrong (default) application to open files
I have firefox 40.0.3 freshly installed on Archlinux with Plasma 5. I like the firefox PDF viewer and would love to continue using it. the problem happens after downloading the pdf (using the download icon in the viewer for example). I click on the "Downloads List" and click on the file, then firefox opens the PDF with Inkscape ! Please note that in the application settings in preferences I have selected "Preview in firefox" So to my understanding the behavior should be 1) Use the Firefox PDF viewer 2) In case the file is downloaded and opened from firefox, use the default application but I can't select the default application, nor does firefox choose the right one --- and that is the problem
Firefox's default application for opening PDF is Inkscape. I added Okular Manually, it didn't help because I couldn't set it to (default)
I tried removing Inkscape but firefox chose to go with Krita as default despite it not being in the options before removing inkscape. I looked everywhere for a way to select what the default application should be, but couldn't find a way to do so.
Is this a bug, or am I missing something. This is really driving me crazy ! because now I have to "open containing folder and open the file using the file manager (Dolphin in my case).
Thanks in advance for the help.
Chosen solution
The default is likely set in the Linux OS.
xdg-mime query default application/pdf xdg-mime default okular.desktop application/pdfRead this answer in context 👍 2
All Replies (4)
That Applications = Preview in Firefox is for loading the PDF from a webpage and having it display in Firefox in lieu of a different application or saving the PDF file (if Always ask is set). Once the PDF is already downloaded and in one the hard drive that setting doesn't come into play.
As far as opening a PDF file which is already on the hard drive the operating system controls which program is used to open the file - you would need to specify "Firefox" in Linux to handle PDF files, but I not sure it that would work. The built-in PDF reader isn't an "application" and I'm not sure if Linux will use it as such - my experience with Linux is very limited; that won't work on Windows OS's.
There is a misunderstanding here. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I don't want firefox to view PDFs downloaded. but rather the systems pdf viewer (Okular in this case).
the problem is: when I open a file downloaded from firefox (by clicking on it from the downloads list), firefox runs the wrong application (Inkscape in this case). (Please check the Attached image: file opening from firefox)
There is nothing wrong with the system, opening a PDF from the file explorer (Dolphin) would work just fine.
Modified by yesserlab
Chosen Solution
The default is likely set in the Linux OS.
xdg-mime query default application/pdf xdg-mime default okular.desktop application/pdf
Thank you, this was great help. I checked file associations for PDF. I had all these applications: Okular, Krita, and Inkscape.
Removing Krita and Inkscape from the list, then restarting firefox solved the problem.
Looks like as firefox fetches the list of applications for a file it orders them ascendingly {Inkscape, Krita, Okular} -- in this case, which I still find to be a bug in behaviour. One should be able to select the default application despite the system's file association. Like having Okular, Adobe Acrobat, ... on the same machine for example. They all are legitamate applications that would be in the association list for PDF, but one would want one of them to open PDFs from within firefox.
Anyways, Thanks a lot for the fast help :D
Modified by yesserlab