Gimp default for opening PDF's from Firefox

**gogga** · 27-Jan-2009, 01:07

I have been struggling with the same issue and managed to fix it by installing the PDF download pluging for Firefox. In the options of the plugin I could set it to use okular for opening pdf docs.

HTH

JK

**makadiwal** · 28-Jan-2009, 05:26

Thanks gogga.

This issue was puzzling me no end and I have tried all the suggestions above before to no avail. installing the PDF Download plugin for firefox did the trick!

Thanks again.
MK

**TheBlackCat** · 17-Feb-2009, 11:31

I got a solution that works from another forum (see here). I have copied it below:

to make pdf open using a specific application when you double click it in the FF download manager, edit /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache , search for: application/pdf= . Put the name of *application*.desktop of the desired application right after = .

So to use okular, it should look like this:
application/pdf=kde4-okularApplication_pdf.desktop

Notice the extra kde4- , this is necessary because okularApplication_pdf.desktop is in the subfolder kde4 in /usr/share/applications.

Replace okularApplication_pdf.desktop with whatever name of the .desktop file of the app you want. If it's in the same folder as mimeinfo.cache, i.e. /usr/share/applications then use the name of the .desktop folder, if it's in a subfolder then prefix it with kde4- , or kde- , whatever. See if this works.

mimeinfo.cache is a dynamic file and will be changed automatically when you install/uninstall a programme (this explains what happened when you uninstalled gimp). Of course you can keep a local copy of this file maintaining your own associations across reinstalls), you need to put this copy in ~/.local/share/applications , also a copy of /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

**Karalabe** · 13-Mar-2009, 09:46

Actually changing the file association should be done in /etc/gnome-defaults.conf... but after spending about 2 hours tweaking it, I still was unable to get it to use my settings... whenever I ran SuSEconfig --module glib2 (which should read the configs from the previously mentioned conf file), it associated the pdf with gimp...

I decided to remove the postscript and pdf mimetype entries from the /usr/share/application/gimp.desktop file, to force okular, but that resulted in not having any entry at all for pdf files...

And then I saw, that the SuSEconfig generates 2 mimetype handler files... one contains only gnome programs (/var/cache/gio-2.0/defaults.list), but also another one, which contains both gnome and kde programs (/usr/share/application/mimeinfo.cache). So I tried setting the /user/share/application/defaults.list (link pointing to /var/cache/gio-2.0/defaults.list which is used by gnome) to point to the before mentioned mimeinfo.cache... and that indeed got my problems solved...

All in all I have no clue what the heck does the SuSEconfig screw up, and why on earth does it generate two separate "default" mime files, but this *seems* to have solved my problems with FF and gimp.

**acampbell4** · 14-Mar-2009, 11:33

I'm a visitor from the Debian world, where I had the same problem. I eventually found a solution: Firefox wants the full path to the app to use. So I went into Preferences and, for xpdf, I chose ;Use other'. Then I navigaged to /usr/bin/xpdf and clicked on that. Now Firefox uses xpdf instead of gimp.

**ValleyGuy** · 23-Mar-2009, 19:10

I had the same problem. I resolved it by editing the Firefox preferences, clicking on "use other" and following the links to /usr/bin/okular. Double clicking on this okular link placed it in the Firefox Applications action preference. It now opens okular for me when clicking on a .pdf document. Hope this helps.

**Knurpht** · 24-Mar-2009, 05:21

I think acompbell is right. If i do anything manually, just replacing the app opening pdf's it's not working. If I change from FF, the full path to the app is writen and it works. Ridiculous BTW.

**amen51** · 19-Apr-2009, 23:24

Have a look at
[ubuntu] HOWTO Fix GIMP associating with PDF files (bare-hand approach) - Ubuntu Forums

It might help ...

**edfabra** · 13-Jun-2009, 11:15

Also found in another forum: simply removing the pdf mimetype from /usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop works.

**manni122** · 09-Sep-2009, 01:52

I found your discussion maybe a little bit late. But a convenient solution I created myself is as follows:
open with text editor and root rights /etc/gnome_defaults.conf
add the following line after the entry "# mime/type=xxx.desktop":
application/pdf=acroread.desktop
save the file and run with root rights:
SuSEconfig --module glib2

viola - done!
You have to bear in mind that this will work only with acroread installed from the repositories. You have to change this in case of downloading Acrobat Reader 9 from Adobe.

Cheers, Manni