I was just curious if someone could help me out with this. I have been using Firefox as my main browser (at least on Linux) for a while, and I have recently decided to start using the Nightly and Beta (and Developer) versions, as I like trying out beta things. The one problem I have is that whenever I open a link from another application, it always opens the regular (stable release channel) version. I went into the Preferred Applications section, but even when I show the list of all applications, I don't see the Beta, Developer, or Nightly versions of Firefox. When I installed them, I simply extracted the zip download from the website to my home folder (a different folder for each browser) and then used alacarte to add links to the "firefox" file in each folder to the Mint menu. I have tried adding this code into a .mailcap folder in my home directory (I replaced the Firefox folder names and my username in the code), but it still shows the regular Firefox in the preferred applications section and still opens it when I click on a link in another app. If someone could tell me something that could allow this to work, it would be greatly appreciated.

you need to show us where and how you installed firefox.

Like I had said in the original post, I extracted the archives from the Firefox download site and a placed them in my home folder. I put them into these three folders: ".Firefox Nightly", ".Firefox Developer", ".Firefox Beta". Then I used alacarte (menu editor) to add shortcuts to the file named "firefox" in each folder (I found that double clicking on this file launched that version of Firefox).

Have you switched Nightly's preferences to always see if it's the default browser? What desktop is Mint using? In KDE or others you can switch text\HTML's "file associations" to a default choice...

maybe add Nightly to your usr\bin you don't say where* said ^"shortcut"^ is?

Edit\added missing word: preferences

I'm using the Cinnamon desktop. I used the menu editor (I think it's alacarte) to add the shortcuts to the menu (like Windows start menu). I added a screenshot of the menu editor I used in the attachments. In the XFCE desktop, what I did to set my custom Firefox as default is I went to the preferred applications section in the settings, and just pointed it to the specific file I wanted to use. However, in Cinnamon, it only gives me a list of programs, but no option to pick a specific file. I didn't know if there was another way to pick a specific file (like in XFCE), or if there was a way to add a specific file to the programs list. I also attached a screenshot of the programs selection list, as well as how I was able to get it working in XFCE.

Also, I tried clicking to option in Nightly to set it as the default browser, but that did nothing. Also, setting Nightly (custom program selection) to be the default program to open HTML files worked for HTML files, but didn't work when doing something like clicking a link in an email.

Attached Thumbnails

     

I ran apps from the folders toO but forget how you set it up so the system sees it as installed? I'd try searching around that... time to start work for me have fun.

Thanks for your help. I was playing around in /usr/share/applications and I think I might be onto something, and I might post if I find out a definite solution.

Brake time.

A quick search on installing app folders found this, may help... https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...-and-usr-local

i think you need something like "preferred applications" (gui setting)
and/or "alternatives x-www-browser" (full program name eludes me atm) (command line).

your last screenshot seems to confirm that you did the first part.
it should've been enough.
maybe log out/in is required?

I just found the solution! I still haven't found how to select a specific file to make as my default browser, but I was able to install Firefox Nightly from a repository, and now it comes up as an option for the default web browser. To install it, just run these three commands in the terminal (you'll have to enter an admin account password for the first one):
I'd still like to know how to set a custom program this way, but at least now I can use Nightly as my default browser. One other note is that installing it this way, it will automatically use a different profile folder, so unless you want to have Nightly be on a different profile, you'll need to edit the profiles file to point to one profile folder for both browsers to use.

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