I installed tumbleweed this week and needed to install some rpms to get wifi working.
It was quite annoying for ark to open up every time I clicked on an rpm.
Surely they should be associated with the package manger by default.
Is this an accident/bug or do some people actually think installation files should be associated with compression managers?
Have a read of this blog.
Just a quick note to explain that /.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list has been deprecated, with most applications/desktop environments now using /.config/mimeapps.list for user-overrides.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/default_applications#XDG_standard
Even easier: right-click on the RPM file, “File type options”, select “Install/remove software” and click Up to the top of the list.
EDIT: I’m interested on the why Ark rather than Install software is on top of that list?
If that option is already there then good, but I can recall a time when it wasn’t hence the manual recreation of it.
EDIT: I’m interested on the why Ark rather than Install software is on top of that list?
I can’t answer that, but I agree that ark shouldn’t be the first option by default.
It is always interesting to know the different ways to do stuff like this. :good:
However, I was originally more interested in why.
It seems like a few other people are in agreement.
Where should bugs like this be reported?
It’s there at least in Tumbleweed and Leap 42.2 (I suspect 42.1 has it as well, but can’t remember for sure…)
Interesting, after installing Leap 42.1 I grabbed the RPM for Chrome because of Netflix and it just opened in Yast doing all its installation work.
because the /usr/share/applications/org.kde.ark.desktop file under MimeType= includes these types application/x-rpm;application/x-source-rpm
for ark not to be offered as an option you need to edit that file and remove those types
personally I do believe ark should be an option because sometimes you don’t want to install a package to get to the files inside said package
I don’t think anyone is questioning ark as an option, but the software installer should be the first option for handling RPM files.
Yes, Ark makes sense to open RPMs, just Yast makes even more sense and thus should be on top of Ark in the priority list! 
I get it, the problem is there is no included desktop file that offers yast as an rpm installer
we can make one our serfs by doing
kate ~/.local/share/applications/yast-software-installer.desktop
and then pasting
[Desktop Entry]
Name=YaST Software Installer
Exec=xdg-su -c "/sbin/yast2 sw_single %F"
MimeType=application/x-rpm;
NoDisplay=true
Type=Application
this desktop file should be made part of the OS and included with some of the core rpm’s, maybe someone can open a bug report and we’ll get it, just talking here will gain us nothing
I know, and that’s what is outlined in my blog 
It did used to be present though.
Are you sure it’s missing? As I said, the entry “Install/remove Software” is there in the “File Association” menu. It’s just that it’s below Ark. I think the problem is not that it’s missing, it’s that Ark is given priority over it.
It is not missing, and never was.
But with 13.2, the YaST team decided to hide it in KDE, because KDE had Apper anyway.
This has been changed again recently though.
Ark is given priority, because its desktop file has this line to make sure it is the default application for archives:
InitialPreference=3
A similar line with higher priority has to be added to YaST’s desktop file to “fix” that.
See also: 954143 – Leap (KDE5) doesn't know what to do with an .rpm file. Chrome 64bit and Skype tested.
For some reason, I had to do a fresh install of Leap 42.2, and I noted that Ark was still prioritised to open RPM… The bug report mentioned by Wolfi323 is unclear (still CONFIRMED, acceptance of the patch apparently still pending…), so I think it’s fair to say this is not “fixed” unfortunately…
I must say I strongly disagree with the point of view of Ludwig Nussel in the bug report about removing the feature entirely. If one is concerned about the user no being aware of the risks, removing the feature is just inefficient: eager users will find the command on the Internet and just proceed anyway, still unaware of the risks. The best way would be to make Yast print a warning when installing a RPM “manually”, just as it does for 1-click install.
Writing this I realise this might be actually relevant enough to go into the bug report, I’ll post there as well.
Well, the priority change never got submitted/accepted (yet).
I must say I strongly disagree with the point of view of Ludwig Nussel in the bug report about removing the feature entirely.
But he is the release manager.
Anyway, that’s not the reason why the second change (to give YaST priority over ark) didn’t get in.
The YaST maintainers messed up, so to say…
You can of course easily change the application preference order in “Configure Desktop”->“Applications”->“File Associations”.
And I did! But I do think aside from my personal case that this patch is a sensible default (I fixed this in 2 sec, so I shouldn’t care about the patch making it into 42.2, but I’m a nice guy, so I’m also concerned about other users! :))
Yes, I do as well.
That’s why I explained what needs to be done in the bug report, and asked about the status months ago…
The problem is that this has never been merged: