Greetings:

I'm new (6 weeks old) to the Linux world. I bought the RH8 Bible and installed the OS on a spare hard drive. I can see from my limited experience that Linux gives you more control over your computer. I've worked through some troubles already but I'm still low on the steep learning curve.

My question if you would be so kind as to direct me. I uninstalled the Mozilla version that is packaged with this distro and installed the 1.3 version from a tar file. I also had to edit the "htmlview" script so as to point to the new Mozilla location. The only problem I'm having now is that URL's that I drag to the desktop don't open the browser anymore when I doubble click on them. If I try to associate these URL's under [user interface] -> application launcher -> .desktop, then it confuses Gnome into using Mozilla to open things it shouldn't.

I hope I explained this properly... thanks

well, if i were you, new to linux and all, i'd stick with using RPMs instead of tar balls.

so if i get you straight, you have bookmarks on your desktop and you want to click on them to open into a mozilla browser window and load that site.

you should be able to right click on the icon, pick open with, then "other" (something to that effect), then associate application, a window will pop up and it is pretty self explanatory.

Thanks boonders but doing what you suggested would only slow me on the Linux learning curve. If I wanted to use precompiled RPM's which are usually out dated then I probably should have stuck MS windoz.

This other suggestion you made has the same effect as I described in my original post << If I try to associate these URL's under [user interface] -> application launcher -> .desktop, then it confuses Gnome into using Mozilla to open things it shouldn't.>>

Thanks for the bump anyway

I should also mention that when I drag the bookmark on my desktop to an open browser window, I get the following information...

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=showthread.php?s=&threadid=52946
Type=Link
URL=http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52946

... odd thing is when I double click, nothing happens! I did a little research and found that this is a mime type function provided by Nautilus. Properties show:

Type: application launcher
Size: 168 bytes
Location: /home/olias/.gnome-desktop
Mime Type: application/x-gnome-app-info

Any ideas why Nautilus does nothing with this ?

If I try to associate these URL's under [user interface] -> application launcher -> .desktop, then it confuses Gnome into using Mozilla to open things it shouldn't.

Could you please be more specific as to the behaviour you're experiencing?

Thanks Faecal but I now can't duplicate the strange behaviour that Gnome was exhibiting. Basically the association of Mozilla with the bookmark links caused Nautilus to open folders in the Mozilla browser as something like this...

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=icantremember
Name=olias home
Type=Link
URL=file:///home/olias/.gnome-desktop/

But now when I try to associate the bookmark links on my desktop, it has no effect. The bookmark links still do nothing when I double click on them and Nautilus opens folders as it should.

********** UPDATE ***********

I found some clues of a GConf registry in Linux that sets the default browser. I used RH8's GConf editor and found a key /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec and its value simply said Mozilla. I changed this to point to the 1.3 version location /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla because I had RPM -e "oldmozzila" as mentioned eariler.

This alone did not fix the "no link action" from a desktop double clink.

I then found a key /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/unknown/command with a value of mozilla "%s" and changed this also to point to the 1.3 version location.

I hope this information might help someone in the same situation. I'm wondering if I caused this problem by installing the 1.3 version of Mozilla before I had actually removed the old version that was packaged with RH8.

Comments please...

It has to do with location. The new mozilla was installed in a new folder. All the associations point to the old directory. If you continue to install future mozilla versions in the same folder, the associations show still remain.