[SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

morganmay · 2013-11-09 01:31:23

I'm using Openbox. Whenever I try to use xdg-open to open a file or link from the command line, I get the error "xdg-open: no method available for opening". This happens with all files and links, regardless of type. I've tried editing ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list, both manually and with xdg-mime; neither had any effect. I've also tried setting environment variables such as $BROWSER; that had no effect, either.

Strangely, exo-open works with no problem (although the only way I've found to change file associations is by using Thunar). I would just switch to exo-open, except I've encountered a couple of programs that rely on xdg-open for opening web links and the like.

Has anyone else seen this problem? At this point, I'm pretty confused, and I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

Last edited by morganmay (2013-11-19 16:31:08)

cfr · 2013-11-09 01:47:54

Have you investigated the other tools that are packaged with xdg-open e.g. xdg-mime, xdg-settings? You can use the former to display and/or set and/or change associations. They have quite good manual pages and there are debug options you can set for xdg-mime, for example, if there's a problem.

WonderWoofy · 2013-11-09 01:51:09

I remember reading about a bug with xdg-open that causes this... but a five second google didn't yield the result I was looking for.

morganmay · 2013-11-10 16:41:49

I've tried setting associations using xdg-mime, but it has no effect. I mean, it works in the sense that the associations appear in mimeapps.list, but xdg-open still returns the "no method available for opening" error. xdg-mime returns no errors.

morganmay · 2013-11-19 03:50:11

Was poking around with this again. I still haven't solved the problem, but I did notice an error that might be a clue. When I enter "xdg-settings get default-url-scheme-handler", I get the error "xdg-settings: unknown desktop environment". I don't have a DE installed, just openbox (although as far as I can tell, XDG doesn't require a DE).

Does anyone know what this means? Searches for this error have only led me to threads recommending solutions that I've already tried without success (editing mimeapps.list, setting environment variables like BROWSER, etc.).

cfr · 2013-11-19 04:01:06

What did you try? For example, did you try https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/29967?

morganmay · 2013-11-19 04:23:52

Actually, I just had a brainstorm just now and figured it out. Poking around in the xdg-settings script revealed that it was checking the DE environment variable, and it returns that error when it doesn't recognize it. So I checked around, and it turns out that for some reason DE was set to "openbox" in .xinitrc. I'm not sure how or why that happened, but it's not something that xdg-open recognizes. Unsetting that variable fixed the problem.

Thanks for helping!

ConnorBehan · 2013-11-19 07:47:50

When DE is not recognized shouldn't xdg-open treat it as it would if unset? Anyway, remember to edit the title to solved.

morganmay · 2013-11-19 16:30:31

ConnorBehan wrote:

When DE is not recognized shouldn't xdg-open treat it as it would if unset?

One would think so, but apparently not.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-09 01:31:23

[SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#2 2013-11-09 01:47:54

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#3 2013-11-09 01:51:09

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#4 2013-11-10 16:41:49

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#5 2013-11-19 03:50:11

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#6 2013-11-19 04:01:06

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#7 2013-11-19 04:23:52

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#8 2013-11-19 07:47:50

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

#9 2013-11-19 16:30:31

Re: [SOLVED] xdg-open: no method available for opening

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