Super strange file association (gnome)

[karamfil]

Hello

I have extremely strange problem.

I had downloaded a .zip archive file and it didn't have an icon and wasn't associated with any program so I right clicked it > Open with > Open with other application >and i chose my archive manager... and when i extracted the archive I tryed to open one text file on my desktop and it tryed to open it with the archive manager. Then i change the file association from the properties of the file and now all my files are opened with text editor.


Gnome version is 2.22.3 if this helps

I created new user and it works normally there.


EDIT: I think I found part of the problem. Every file's mime type is text/plain

[sh3ll]

I have exactly the same problem, but in my case, it appeared after emerge --update yesterday...
Every file wants to open with text editor, and evince won't open pdf files.
If i change the behavior, then every file will open with other app which I assign.

So far, i managed to google that file associations are related with gvfs.
If I run gvfs-info somefile.desktop as normal user :
standard::content-type: text/plain
standard::fast-content-type: application/octet-stream

as root :
standard::content-type: application/x-desktop
standard::fast-content-type: application/x-desktop

Hope that answer is outthere ...

[cwr]

Something's roached the mime types; I _think_ the command is "update_mime_types",
but I wouldn't put money on it. Try "apropos mime" and see what turns up. The man
pages for the various commands are pretty clear.

Mime types are most listed in /usr/share/mime, but some may be in /usr/local/share/mime.

Will

EDIT: /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache sets mimetype associations, and can be
updated by hand or with "update-desktop-database". The mime database itself is
updated with "update_mime_database", (not _types, as above), which is best run
with the --verbose option.

[sh3ll]

Thanks cwr/Will , it worked ...
I found the command just before you posted, but couldn't find mime dirs...

[karamfil]

Ok i fixed it..

Heres what i did after hell of a reading

1: $ update-mime-database home/username/.local/share/mime
2: eix-sync or emerge --sync
3: emerge -Dav gvfs
4: reboot

and now it is ok

[GoldenMouse]

Having the same problem. I posted earlier before seeing this. Going to try those fixes.

I'm using Gentoo x86, no overlays, no unmasked packages, only wine keyworded. The desktop environment is Gnome, no others installed. Now, for some odd reason, the system has become unable to recognize the type of file that most files are. It tries to treat them all as plaintext and attempting to open a given file with its proper program (rather than double-clicking) leads to the program being unable to open it and complaining that the file is an octet stream.

For example, I have a few pdfs and zips on my desktop. They show previews as if they were text files. I double click, and gedit attempts to open them, fails, and displays an error about them being octet streams. I go to evince and archive manager and try to open their respective files through the program. Evince and archive manager make the same complaint. I have some image files in a folder on my desktop. They preview just fine, but cannot open for the same reasons. Thankfully, OpenOffice still appears to be able to open its files, but only through its menus, not through the file manager.

For what it's worth, it seemed to start with zip files as well.

[onexused]

I had this problem, too, but that command fixed it. Thanks!
Shouldn't this have been done automatically with (what program?)'s update, since it's a problem?

[letrigre]

I dont have a .local/share/mime in my home user. I can't fix it. any other idea to fix that ?

[onexused]

I dont have a .local/share/mime in my home user. I can't fix it. any other idea to fix that ?

So create the directories first:

Code: Select all

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/mime/packages ~/.local/share/mime/application; update-mime-database /home/<username>/.local/share/mime

Edit: Heh, thought it was a file instead of a directory. Maybe this'll work better.

[letrigre]

It's a workaround or a true fix ?

[letrigre]

Anyway i tried but
Directory '/home/mornifle/.local/share/mime/packages' does not exist!
it makes sense in fact i think it's for users specific mime type. I guess that the system should work without that.
I will try to find another fix

[onexused]

Anyway i tried but
Directory '/home/mornifle/.local/share/mime/packages' does not exist!
it makes sense in fact i think it's for users specific mime type. I guess that the system should work without that.
I will try to find another fix

Sorry, I didn't even look in the directory before I answered. ~/.local/share/mime is supposed to be a directory, not a file. For me, it also contains two directories : application and packages. Hope that works better. When I did this, though, I didn't have to create the directories; they were already there.

[barikman]

For me, the following worked immediately (I don't have a local mime directory either) - no reboot or any other messing about was required:

Code: Select all

update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

I found some talk in gentoo-user that suggested the mime db should be in /usr/local/share/mime/, but it isn't - it's in /usr/share/mime.

HTH

Phil

[sera]

I ran in the same problem, the fix was to remove "~/.local/share/mime/". Anything else mentioned in this thread didn't work for me. Don't know where this directory came from in the first place.

[rlittle]

Worked for me to. That is to say:

(as root)

Code: Select all

update-mime-database -v /usr/share/mime

(as user)

Code: Select all

update-desktop-database -v ~/.local/share/mime

..and restart the desktop.

[dylix]

Worked for me to. That is to say:

(as root)

Code: Select all

update-mime-database -v /usr/share/mime

(as user)

Code: Select all

update-desktop-database -v ~/.local/share/mime

..and restart the desktop.

same fixed my problem aswell though i just had to refresh the folder view, not restart gnome...

[Excluvior]

Worked for me to. That is to say:

(as root)

Code: Select all

update-mime-database -v /usr/share/mime

(as user)

Code: Select all

update-desktop-database -v ~/.local/share/mime

..and restart the desktop.

same fixed my problem aswell though i just had to refresh the folder view, not restart gnome...

Fixed my problem too

[gasparov]

I don't know what exactly fixed my problem , what i do know is that after the two update commands I had to remove "./local/share/mime" to make it work. As sera said.