Linux Mint Forums

I love Cinnamon to bits but there seem to be a couple of grotty bits. One that's really giving me grief at the moment is that I can't seem to associate file types with a particular application if the app isn't in the applications list.

For example, I use Visual Slickedit as my programming editor and, for whatever reason, when you right click a file and hit Properties->Open With->Show Other Applications, Slickedit isn't listed. Unfortunately, the "Add" button is greyed out and I can't seem to find where the system application configuration list is kept so i could edit it manually (the Ubuntu forum thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1850568 says it's in /usr/share/applications/myapp.desktop but the file doesn't exist in my mint installation). In Gnome 2 you just selected "Custom Command" but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent (working) mechanism in Cinnamon.

I would have thought this is a fairly serious bug but I can't seem to find anything on it.

All I want to do is associate /home/paul/.slickbin/bin/vs with .tex files; can't be that hard!

Any ideas?

(By the way, I've tried running nautilus in root mode to change the properties and the add button is still greyed out)

I have a similar problem. I use Eudora, running under wine, for email. There doesn't seem to be any way to set it as the default email in LM 13 Cinnamon. This is an important problem for me.

Also: I installed VLC for video and Audacious for audio. Even after setting these as default, Banshee continued to open as the default program. I was only able to correct this by uninstalling Banshee.

There is a bug in the tracker regarding this, but it hasn't seen a lot of activity.

I use Audacious and VLC, and wanted to set them as the default applications for music and video, respectively. I'm able to change the application to Audacious or VLC, and while that settings dialog dutifully shows each respective application as the 'default' for that type, Totem would continue to be used to open the files.

I have discovered that this is not a Cinnamon problem, but a Gnome 3.x (or, possibly, a Nautilus) problem -- I had the same issue on my plain vanilla Fedora 17 installation with no Cinnamon installed (yet).

Odipides wrote: (the Ubuntu forum thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1850568 says it's in /usr/share/applications/myapp.desktop but the file doesn't exist in my mint installation).

the .deskptop files do exist in my Mint 13 Cinnamon installation, you are not expecting to find a file called myapp.desktop are you ? Well if you had an applicaiton called myapp then you probably would I am not at my Mint machine right now so can't check but I had one called open-jdk-java.desktop or something similar that is used to invoke the JRE for a jar file.. Maybe you need to create a new one for your new application.

"you are not expecting to find a file called myapp.desktop"

Doh! Yes I was. I misread the ubuntu post. I'd thought this was where the applist was, didn't notice that it's a file per app.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll try again with my brain turned on.

Well, I guess the "right" way to do this is this way: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=90202

But this is "my" way:

Install another file manager - this one from XFCE: It will show up in the menu under "System Tools" or just run: Right click a file with the extension you want to change and select: "Open with other application"
You will end up with something that should look a lot like the following and the association you make in thunar will apply to nautilus:

Thanks, thunar approach works perfectly.

I tried to edit the application files myself but ended up opening the file twice (once in Slick and once in gedit) dunno why. Also, all my changes to defaults.list disappeared spontaneously - also no idea why.

Thanks again for the help.

Phewee, another thanks from me ! I just came across this problem today and was scratching my head how to solve it. What an utterly stupid bug, that's the kind of regression which makes me ponder whether I'm using the right desktop at all.

This is ridiculous. I know you are all computer experts and you don't think it's that big of a deal to go editing system files to be able to do things, but isn't the whole point of an operating system to make things easier? The idea that a user can't associate a type of file with its correct program without installing a third-party application is a sure sign that the OS is lacking some basic infrastructure.

sorry if i'm complaining in the wrong forum but i want people to demand a higher standard for operating system software than this.

jerkey wrote:This is ridiculous. I know you are all computer experts and you don't think it's that big of a deal to go editing system files to be able to do things, but isn't the whole point of an operating system to make things easier? The idea that a user can't associate a type of file with its correct program without installing a third-party application is a sure sign that the OS is lacking some basic infrastructure.

sorry if i'm complaining in the wrong forum but i want people to demand a higher standard for operating system software than this.

As an accomplished ranter myself I can appreciate your indignation but you are correct - you are posting this in the wrong forum.

This has nothing to do with Mint but everything to do with Gnome. Gnome's overriding design philosophy has always been that they know better than you what you need and they will continuously remove function with every point release. They have come to the conclusion in this particular situation that you have no business setting your own file associations - at least they are not going to make it simple enough for a mere user to do.

Mint has taken steps with Cinnamon to bring sanity back to the Gnome desktop but unless I missed the memo they do not yet have a staff large enough to fix everything.

Thunar has answered my Prayers!

Thank you altair4

Brilliant work. Did the thunar "trick" for foxit through wine and it worked like a champ. Thanks for posting!

I like altair4 's Thunar trick - awsome, perfect example of thinking outside the box!
Thank you very very much.

Cheers,
hexpek