default browser reset does not stick

[tomcloyd]

I am unable to reset my default browser to Firefox. In System Settings > Workshop appearance...> Default applications > Web Browser, I currently have "kde4-google-chrome". Moments ago I reset it to Firefox, clicked Apply, moved my selection to Window Manager, then back to Web Browser, and once again saw "kde4-google-chrome". Thinking maybe there was some kind of system problem, I rebooted. The problem did not change in any way.

What can I do to fix this?

Thanks for any help offered!

[SteveRiley]

Perhaps Chrome is configured to keep itself as the default browser? I don't use it, so I'm not certain about how it behaves.

Also, look in File Associations somewhere in System Settings -- I don't 14.10 anymore, so I forget exactly where. Type html in the search box. Then navigate to text -> html. You should see multiple items in Application Preference Order. Move Firefox to the top.

[tomcloyd]

Thanks for your response!

Perhaps Chrome is configured to keep itself as the default browser? I don't use it, so I'm not certain about how it behaves.

Also, look in File Associations somewhere in System Settings -- I don't 14.10 anymore, so I forget exactly where. Type html in the search box. Then navigate to text -> html. You should see multiple items in Application Preference Order. Move Firefox to the top.

1. The problem I described is within System Settings itself, and has nothing to do with Chrome, actually. I don't think Chrome can be controlling System Settings while I'm still executing System Settings.

2. BUT, the current Chrome does not appear to have any way to turn OFF its persistent resetting of my default browser setting. Every time I launch it, the setting is set to Chrome. Again.

3. File Association has been set as I want it, and has no effect on the Default Applications settings anyway, so far as I can tell.

Any more ideas? I'm interested, if so.

[otisklt]

In the System Settings, try using the elipsis browse button to select the program you want to be the default.
I recently changed from opera to pale moon with that method and it worked fine.

[tomcloyd]

Yes, that would be the best way to do it, and that's what I did. This button open a modal window in which one can select the desired program, from those listed in the K-Menu file tree - or in a system file tree modal window, if desired. The button is found at the end of this selection vector: System Settings > Workshop appearance...> Default applications > Web Browser.

It's after that that the problem occurs. As stated in my original post, selected Firefox, clicked Apply, moved my selection to Window Manager, then back to Web Browser, and once again saw "kde4-google-chrome".

My selection is simply ignored, and the prior selection is restored, regardless of what I do. THAT is the problem, and it's all happening WITHIN System Settings.

[claydoh]

What is 'kde4-google-chrome'? (just curious, as I can't seem to find anything about it on my own )

[claydoh]

Back on-topic:

what does your ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals file show as the BrowserApplication in the [General] section?
It can be a command, such as firefox %u , but it can also be a .desktop file (firefox.desktop for example), if you used the menu tree to browse to and select firefox.

[tomcloyd]

What is 'kde4-google-chrome'? (just curious, as I can't seem to find anything about it on my own )

I have NO idea. Doing a web search for that string does give me some hits, but none that I can really make any sense of. I'm baffled.

[tomcloyd]

Back on-topic:

what does your ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals file show as the BrowserApplication in the [General] section?
It can be a command, such as firefox %u , but it can also be a .desktop file (firefox.desktop for example), if you used the menu tree to browse to and select firefox.

BrowserApplication[$e]=kde4-google-chrome.desktop

[tomcloyd]

UPDATE: For no reason I can find at all, the problem is gone. Sortta.

My default browser is now Firefox, as I wish it to be.

Launching Chrome does not change this. Furthermore, for Chrome finally has, in its settings, an option to make it the default browser. This was not there before, and searching the web for insight on this problem produced nothing, as did posting on the Google Groups Chrome help forum.

However, System Settings > Workshop appearance...> Default applications > Web Browser is still set to "kde4-google-chrome", and all attempts to change it fail, AND I have no idea what "kde4-google-chrome" might be, nor does anyone else, it seems.

I think this is all clear evidence that space aliens really are running the world, or at least my OS...

I'm marking this solved, even if I can't say by what, whom, or why...

[otisklt]

odd seems like you have a setting file that you may have lost permission to

[tomcloyd]

That was my impression, too, although I couldn't begin to go further in solving the puzzle.