[SOLVED] Debian "Launch Application" and "Choose other app..

[k829king]

If I click a url in a Thunderbird email I then get a "Launch Application" GUI with "This link needs to be opened with an application. Send to:"
with a "Choose" button on a line with "Choose other application"
I assume I should look to link to a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ or a local .desktop file but the "Choose" file dialogue doesn't seem to show hidden folders or files?

What can I do?

[sunrat]

In Thunderbird - Edit > Preferences > General > Files and Attachments for http and https choose your browser in the dropdown eg. mine says "Use Firefox"

[k829king]

Hi @Sunrat... I don't have http or https (or www) in the list ... it is just a list of file types (e.g CSV, JPEG, PNG, etc)

[sunrat]

Hmm, back to square 1 then.

If I click a url in a Thunderbird email I then get a "Launch Application" GUI with "This link needs to be opened with an application. Send to:"
with a "Choose" button on a line with "Choose other application"
I assume I should look to link to a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ or a local .desktop file but the "Choose" file dialogue doesn't seem to show hidden folders or files?

Try choosing /usr/bin/firefox or whatever browser you want.

I would have thought choosing firefox.desktop in /usr/share/applications/ would work too. It's not hidden. File choose dialogs should show hidden files if you press Ctrl-H anyway but not relevant here.

[k829king]

no joy, I tried choosing /usr/share/applications/firefox-esr.desktop. closed everything start again and click on link nothing happens.
But https is now an entry in preferences general now, I then tried setting to /usr/bin/firefox still nought.
Ideally I wanted .local/share/applications because I have firefox-esr.desktop file there with override to open in Private mode.
NB this is all working on Deb 10 partition, it is only when booting into Deb11 partition that it does not play ball.

[sunrat]

Running out of ideas here. I never had any problem with Thunderbird opening links.
Maybe compare your ~/.config/mimeapps.list files between Buster and Bullseye.

BTW Debian 11 doesn't exist until it is released. Now it's just Testing or Bullseye.

[k829king]

BTW Debian 11 doesn't exist until it is released. Now it's just Testing or Bullseye.

oh .. Bullseye Alpha 3

~/.config/mimeapps.list

there is only 3 lines in "[Added Associations]" on the Bullseye Alpha 3
In the Debian 10 version the only entries tied to firefox are text/html=firefox-esr.desktop
There are none that seem to relate to http or https ...
But something odd, I'm sure it was working in Debian10 previously but when I just went to test it there was no joy. Obviously there might be some sort of nuance with the actual URL's ... but the URL's do work if pasted into firefox so none the wiser here

[k829king]

so I got this to launch firefox by associating the Choose Application GUI for https link to /usr/bin/firefox which is annotated as Program
I think previously I may have inadvertently attempted to link to /usr/bin/firefox-esr which it annotates as Shared Library.
The thing is I want it to use a .desktop link so it uses parameters I have assigned and want used... do think this is a feature request rather than a bug? And is si where should such a feature request be directed ... Thunderbird, LXQT, or Debian?

[k829king]

so I've resolved this by creating a script file /usr/bin/firefox-esr2.sh containing

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
/usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr --private-window $1

And I associate Thunderbird http and https to that, opens links in private window as I wanted.