Bug#599610: libgnome2-0: cannot run applications from desktop file

[Sascha Silbe]

Package: libgnome2-0
Version: 2.30.0-1
Severity: normal


The gnome-open man page shows that gnome-open can be used to start applications by passing the name of their .desktop file, but this doesn't work:

sascha.silbe at twin:~$ gnome-open /usr/share/applications/conkeror.desktop
Error showing url: No application is registered as handling this file
sascha.silbe at twin:~$

Excerpt from man page:

>       Possible useless use of gnome-open
>              gnome-open /usr/share/applications/gedit.desktop


This feature would have been useful to me as it avoids having to interpret the Exec key of the .desktop file (unquoting, parameter expansion, etc.).

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libgnome2-0 depends on:
ii  gvfs                       1.6.3-2       userspace virtual filesystem - ser
ii  libaudiofile0              0.2.6-8       Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0               2.24.3-1      Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libc6                      2.11.2-6      Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libesd0                    0.2.41-7      Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared
ii  libgconf2-4                2.28.1-4      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.24.2-1      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-common           2.30.0-1      The GNOME library - common files
ii  libgnomevfs2-0             1:2.24.3-1    GNOME Virtual File System (runtime
ii  liborbit2                  1:2.14.18-0.1 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpopt0                   1.16-1        lib for parsing cmdline parameters

libgnome2-0 recommends no packages.

libgnome2-0 suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information