remove an application and its file associations
 

Ubuntu 10.04

I installed real player from real media on my machine and it has taken over all my media files so that they launch Real Player when I double-click on them. I tried to right-click and choose "Open With Other Application" and chose "Movie Player" There is a check-box at the bottom which says "Remember this Application for ..." It's checked by default so I leave it that way thinking that from now on, when I double-click on a movie file it will bring up "Movie Player". Such is not the case, however. If I double-click on even the same file I launch Real Player.

I just want to get rid of Real Player AND its file associations for good.

an someone please help me?
Thanks,
Paul

I have found that often, to make the "remember file association" checkbox to work, I have to actually choose the "choose a custom application" (or whatever--the wording varies from environment to environment), navigate to /usr/bin, and choose the program from there.

Just my experience.

frank, I did as you suggested, but it didn't work. Same o same o! I found the realplayer file(I think) in the same directory you mentioned. I tried just deleting it, but apparently that option is disabled. Does Ubuntu have a way to uninstall applications? I tried both synaptic Package manager and Ubuntu Software Cener to try to remove it, but I don't guess I used either one to install it in the first place, so they won't remove it.

That is odd--and annoying.

I just looked at my RealPlayer and could find nothing in preferences for setting or unsetting file associations. It's been a while since I installed it, but I think it displayed a dialog on first run with every conceivable file extension checked, and I unchecked everything but real media files. (I have it for only one purpose: listening to old time radio shows from one website which is all in real formats).

I installed it from a *.deb with Synaptic. Using the synaptic search for "realplay" (the name of the executable) turns it up in Synaptic for removal.

If you installed realplay from sources and still have the build folder, running "make uninstall" as root from within the build folder should remove it.

Also, sudo rm /usr/bin/realplay should do remove the executable, but might leave behind a residue.

well i deleted the whole folder and now when i double-click absolutely nothing happens! I'm sorry I ever installed Real-Player, t offers no advantages over Movie Player and I sure don't recommend it!

I have the same version of Ubuntu. You don't uninstall completely by deleting files. How did you install this Realplayer?

If your problem is in viewing video and audio from internet web pages, those files are associated with plugins and are changed in the browser options. If a plugin will not be removed, you can at least disable it in the browser. The rest of this has nothing to do with browser plugins.

There is an explanation of where and how file associations are stored in Ubuntu here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/16580...iations-stored

Also see this as a possible fix:

http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/05/...04-lucid-lynx/

If you use the Ubuntu Tweak (which I haven't tried), you probably won't need the directions below. It might be the best thing to do.

The thing that might be wrong with your file associations is that Realplayer has made itself the default for all your video file types and maybe some audio file types. The only good way to uninstall an application is through the synaptic package manager, but it only uninstalls .deb packages. Sometimes a file association problem as you describe can be fixed by manually editing a "defaults.list" file in those cases to change that.

Enter these commands in the Terminal program and leave the Terminal window open until you are finished editing the defaults.list file:

Now make a copy of the defaults .list file and rename the copy to save it if you need to restore it later:

Open the defaults.list for editing:

Then enter your password at the prompt. This opens the list of default file-type associations.

In the list of default file-type associations for video or audio find all references to realplayer.desktop or helix.desktop to the right of the "=" and change them to mplayer.desktop, or vlc.desktop, or whatever you need. I use smplayer, but my "defaults.list" says "totem.desktop".

If you set most of your video types to "totem.desktop", you can hopefully sucessfully choose mplayer later by right-click choosing an application without realplayer taking over again. If you don't see a problem here, make no changes. When you are through, save the file if it was changed.

Here is a copy of only the relevant parts of my defaults.list file for your reference. The only thing I changed since install is the vlc player for DVD's. Take note of the entries for realaudio and realvideo also:

I just now thought of another answer that might be better than the one I posted earlier. Open the file browser, Nautilus, and find a file of the file-type that you want to change the application it opens with. Say for example an avi file. Right-click it and choose "properties". Then choose the "open with" tab. choose the application you want to use for all avi files. Then do the same for one wmv file, etc. Once is enough for each type. You can also remove applications from being listed here.

You are going to keep having this type of trouble as long as you insist on installing things from 3rd party venders.

Always check for the same program in your package manger as it may well be in the repo. If not look for something that is similar.

Only when that proves to be inferior should you start looking elsewhere.

It is not that it can't or shouldn't be done. It leads to a lot of problems for folks that do not understand the file system and package management in Linux.

You can save yourself a lot of grief and learn a lot about alternatives available while gaining experience and knowledge of your system.

Well it seems the only damage I've done is to mp4 files. On these, which I use rarely, now I have to right click and choose open with movie player. A small price to pay for an education. Thanks for all your suggestions. Since I've erased the files the only recourse would be to edit that default.list file. Trying(and not succeeding) to alter the open with... was led to this post in the first place. Oh well, it's just not worth the bother.
Paul

I don't think you are understanding me right on my last post and suggestion. Right clicking on the file and choosing "open with" is not at all the same as right clicking on the file in Nautilus and choosing "Properties". Then after choosing properties in Nautilus you change the file association by changing it in the "properties" "open with" window. It's totally different from your method. I've had this work 100% as long as I chose the right application and the codecs were installed, while your way is sometimes temporary and sometimes fails. This is different from frankbell's way and the way you did it. If you temporarily do it your way and then look in the properties/open_with window, you will see that your choice by your method caused no change in this properties window. But changing something in this window will change your list in your old "open-with" method.

If you use the defaults.list method, set mp4 video to mplayer.desktop, but you should also do the change in properties/open_with. What's in the defaults can be overridden, as in: I have totem as default but everything opens in smplayer for me because I permanently chose it in properties/open_with. That overrides the defaults.list. It would also be a small help to you, and a learning opportunity, to also remove real player from the applications in the list of possibles in that properties/open_with window. By all means choose mplayer in that window.