Currently running firefox-38.3.0 on Slackware-14.1 with Xfce4-4.10.1, but this has been an annoying issue for a long time and I'd like to resolve it ... if I can.

Quite often a Web page will have a contact name listed. When the cursor is hovered over that link the status line shows 'mailto:<address>'. If I accidently click on the link the screen freezes. The cursor can be moved but cannot access a differen panel, close firefox, or do anything useful. I must enter ctrl-alt-backspace to kill X, then restart it.

In the firefox Edit->Preferences->Application menu the mailto line is set to 'use alpine' which is my MUA.

Any and all help to fix this issue will be greatly appreciated.

Rich

I just tested in Firefox. I set it to use Mutt (my MUA on this machine), saved the change, then went to a mailto link. I clicked the link and nothing nada zilch. Firefox did not freeze, but it did not open Mutt either. It just lay there on the floor of the computer not doing nothing.

My first guess is that Firefox does not understand command line mail clients. This link would seem to confirm that.

Thanks for your comment. The issue with firefox freezing when a mailto link was clicked occurred even before I changed the preference to alpine. After reading your message I tried changing it to mutt, but could not. After several left- and right clicks with the trackball, the option changed to 'use opera.' I left it there and tested. Sure enough, when I clicked on a mailto link opera opened. I closed that application and was able to continue.

Your conclusion that firefox does not understand text-based MUAs must be correct. Why it did nothing with mutt and freezes with alpine shall remain a mystery. (Perhaps it knows pine, but not alpine, but that's not worth the time and effort to test.)

I never send mail from firefox, opera, or anything other than alpine; therefore, leaving the firefox preference set to opera means that I need only close that application when I inadvertently click on a mailto link rather than killing X and restarting it.

Thanks for the solution!

Rich

Glad I could help. I've been thinking of giving Alpine a try just for the fun of it.

I don't regularly use Firefox, but I do use Seamonkey and I've had mailto links in both Firefox and Seamonkey work with Seamonkey Mail, Thunderbird, and other GUI mail programs (I've probably tried all of them at one time or another; probably my favorite GUI mail program is Sylpheed/Claws).

I used to be a loyal Opera user, but I don't like the direction the company is now headed in since they booted out the founder. That's just me.