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I'm using Calibre and it seems that it uses xdg-open to open files. This, even when tried in terminal, only opens nautilus and the file is selected, but not opened. It doesn't matter if I try to open .cbz or .pdf.

This seems fine: /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

application/x-cbr=evince.desktop
application/x-cbz=evince.desktop

Sure when I open the file in Nautilus it opens, but this approach is quite annoying.

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  • I tried 'xdg-open Horses.pdf' in oneiric and it opens in evince.
    – kyleN
    Nov 11, 2011 at 1:07
  • Could you post the file (or a similar file)? What does it look like when it "opens in nautilus" (screenshot)? Are you sure it's not opening in Evince? Please edit your post with the details.
    – Jjed
    Jan 27, 2012 at 22:11
  • It doesn't matter what the file is, even .jpg's open nautilus. I'm very sure that it is Nautilus (3.2.1) as it says so in the about-box. Screenshots won't do any good since there really is nothing to see. The terminal command gives no error, but launches Nautilus, with the file selected (as in single-clicked).
    – DeusIX
    Feb 7, 2012 at 18:29
  • I started having this problem when I installed xubuntu-desktop alongside gnome. (exo-open works, but xdg-open and gnome-open always open nautilus)
    – mkm
    Mar 10, 2012 at 18:34

2 Answers 2

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I found a solution to the same problem in an answer for another askubuntu question: https://askubuntu.com/a/39602/1943

Basically you have to set Thunar as default file manager for xfce:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10884462&postcount=16

Once you do that, xdg-open and gnome-open will avoid using exo-helper to open nautilus. Somehow gnome and xfce get interwoven.

EDIT: the downside is that now Thunar opens instead of nautilus when opening folders. But I find it less frustrating, on the other hand I could uninstall xfce4 if I really don't want it

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  • That works, thanks. short form to help others: - open 'exo-preferred-applications' - change the preferred "file manager" under "utilities" to Thunar"
    – DeusIX
    Mar 15, 2012 at 13:36
  • This bug persists even in 12.04. Is there a bug filed in Launchpad?
    – NoBugs
    Apr 11, 2012 at 22:29
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Source: Bug #751374 “Dash won't open files anymore” : Bugs : “unity-place-files” package : Ubuntu

See comment #27 in the source thread. I modified the original commands to use sed.

  1. Remove mime entries containing exo as a normal user.

    sed -i '/exo/d' ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

  2. Update mime desktop database.

    update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications

This helped me fix my own Ubuntu/XFCE install without removing XFCE. You may have to modify more (see source thread), but these commands fixed it in my install.

From what I gather in the source thread, the bug may have been fixed for clean installs.

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  • @NoBugs See the source thread in my answer for the relevant bug on Launchpad.
    – ENG_ACK
    May 12, 2012 at 9:14

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