[Debian-zh-dev] Bug#1034036: galternatives doesn't set the default browser

[Ron Murray]

Package: galternatives
Version: 1.0.9
Severity: normal

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Dear Maintainer,

   I'm not sure what package to file this bug under, but I picked
galternatives because it's probably the most common way Debian users
(and others?) want to change default applications. Note that, as far
as I know, there's nothing wrong with galternatives itself: please
assign this bug to whichever package you consider to be most
appropriate.

   It all started when I installed the Vivaldi browser on my Debian
testing system. It worked fine in itself, but when I clicked on a link
in an email (using evolution and bluemail gave the same result), it
brought up vivaldi instead of my regular browser (Firefox). I checked
/etc/alternatives/x-www-browser, and it pointed to Firefox, just as
I'd set it. Still, clicking on email links brought up vivaldi instead
of Firefox.

   It's taken me quite some time to find out why this is happening. I
first discovered, using 'ps auxf', that the instance of vivaldi
brought up by clicking on an email link was called by
'/lib/systemd/systemd --user'. So systemd was involved. The plot
thickened.

   Today, I figured it out. Gnome. Now, I don't have Gnome installed
on my Debian testing box, but I installed it on a VM, and found that
gnome-control-center sets these things, *even when you don't have
Gnome installed*. I installed just gnome-control-center on my Debian
testing box, set it up as I wanted, and now clicking on an email link
brings up Firefox, as it's supposed to.

   This means that, for some default applications anyway,
galternatives is useless for setting them up, and, unless you have
gnome-control-center installed, there's no way to set them up at all.

   I'm not sure what the solution is here. Perhaps galternatives could
be modified to fix it, or perhaps a new application is in
order. Another alternative would be to install gnome-control-center at
all times, and provide instructions to use it if needed. (I don't
recommend this: the thing's ugly).

 .....Ron Murray

- -- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.0
  APT prefers testing-security
  APT policy: (500, 'testing-security'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 6.2.10.khufu (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_OOT_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages galternatives depends on:
ii  gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0  2.42.10+dfsg-1+b1
ii  gir1.2-gtk-3.0        3.24.37-2
ii  python3               3.11.2-1
ii  python3-gi            3.42.2-3+b1

Versions of packages galternatives recommends:
ii  pkexec       122-3
ii  python3-xdg  0.28-2

galternatives suggests no packages.

- -- no debconf information

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