LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] using openbox as bare WM : setting xdg default application to okular fails

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using openbox as bare WM : setting xdg default application to okular fails

I'm using openbox as a window manager without any desktop environment on multiple Linux distributions. But at the moment I'm using Mageia Linux Release 5. Most of the time I don't notice xdg because I open those applications I haven't defined keybindings for in my ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml, either from the command line or with midnight commander. Which has it's own method of assigning default applications.

But at least some of the applications I use depend on xdg to open other applications. For example when the lyx document processor opens a pdf to view the current output of the current document. It was using the gimp.

{I like okular for this even though I can't stand the KDE environment itself since kde4. Never could stand gnome so I wound up using openbox}

I did some web searching and learned to test xdg in a terminal with

Code:

xdg-open testfile.pdf

which also opened the pdf with gimp.
After some more web searching I tried editing the file
~/.config/mimeapps.list (which hadn't specified a pdf application or hardly anything else)
I added one line so that it now contained:

Code:

[Default Applications]

inode/directory=pcmanfm.desktop

application/pdf=okular.desktop



[Added Associations]

inode/directory=pcmanfm.desktop;

This had no effect on the application used by xdg-open to open a pdf file.

After some more web searching I tried to follow the instructions on the Arch wiki:

This command did work to set the default to Evince {which is somewhat better than opening a pdf with the gimp. But I wanted okular}

Code:

xdg-mime default evince.desktop application/pdf

So I tried:

Code:

xdg-mime default okular.desktop application/pdf

But when I tested it with:

Code:

xdg-open testfile.pdf

I got a blank okular display window with this error message:

http://oi64.tinypic.com/29olh80.jpg

Yet from the same xterm {in the same directory}

Code:

okular testfile.pdf

opens the test pdf properly with okular.

As does selecting the file in midnight commander and hitting Enter with this:

Code:

# PDF

type/^PDF

        Open=(okular %f &)

in my ~/.config/mc/mc.ext file...

What can I do {besides installing the entire KDE desktop environment} to get xdg-open to succesfuly open a pdf with okular???

i think you are very close to solving this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtwdyp (Post 5487773)

So I tried:

Code:

xdg-mime default okular.desktop application/pdf

But when I tested it with:

Code:

xdg-open testfile.pdf

I got a blank okular display window with this error message:
http://oi64.tinypic.com/29olh80.jpg

i wonder where the extra options "--icon okular -caption Okular" come from?(*) why would xdg-open put them there?
maybe the solution can be found in the okular.desktop file?

(*)
test: try it from a terminal, with these options added to the command line - do you get the same error?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho (Post 5488098)

i think you are very close to solving this.

i wonder where the extra options "--icon okular -caption Okular" come from?(*) why would xdg-open put them there?
maybe the solution can be found in the okular.desktop file?

You were right. I did a:

Code:

# vim $(find / -iname okular.desktop)

found and truncated the Exec line.

Code:

# Exec=okular %U %i -caption %c

Exec=okular %U

Now xdg-open works for pdf files... And LyX can generate and open pdf output.

Thank You!