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bisiso

Member

Registered: 2025-05-20

Posts: 2

Have firefox launch terminal-based applications in specified terminal

When I download a file in Firefox and the default application to open this file (as per my Firefox settings) is terminal-based (ie 'Terminal=True' in desktop entry), the default terminal used is xterm.
So, for example, in the Firefox settings I have set the default application to open text files set as vim, so when I download a text file in my browser, it automatically opens it in vim inside an xterm terminal.

I would like to change the default terminal to Alacritty.

Currently, from the wiki, I am not sure whether Firefox uses GIO only to search for possible default applications / desktop entries for a specified MIME type or if it also uses GIO to open them.

If Firefox does use GIO to open the applications, how can I configure GIO to use alacrity as its default terminal for terminal-based applications?
If it doesn't, what does it use? And how can I configure whatever it does use?

jl2

Member

From: 47° 18' N 8° 34' E

Registered: 2022-06-01

Posts: 1,212

Re: Have firefox launch terminal-based applications in specified terminal

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=286905

De-facto way is to set the environment variable TERMINAL="alacritty".
Unless you're on gnome.

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bisiso

Member

Registered: 2025-05-20

Posts: 2

Re: Have firefox launch terminal-based applications in specified terminal

I am using i3 (no gnome), but setting the environment variable didn't work.

Last edited by bisiso (2025-05-20 12:28:24)