Yeah so I've grown tired of yelling at gnome for opening totem each and every time. Even after forcefully uninstalling totem video files / mp3's still didn't open in the correct programs. So I finally took action...
The myth of gnome 2.10 is that the "Open With" program will automatically do file associations for you. Well this is a complete LIE. There's a lot of manipulatations needed to get the currect applications opening with a specified file type. Lets jump in!!
[ Gnome 2.10 uses a couple of ways to store file associations. ]
1.) /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
-- This method is perhaps one of the most important. Following this comes..
2.) /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
-- This is the cache of the current mime types. Updating the mime database doesn't work to well so of course you have to manually edit this as well.
3.) ~/.local/share/applications/
-- The dreaded "Open With"
4.) ~/.gnome/share/apps/
-- Same as the above
Enough of the explaining, lets get into the goodies. First we will have to of course clear our "Open With" settings. If we don't they will come back and haunt us forever. Trust me on this one. I found out after 20 minutes of staring..thinking...WTF?
Step 1:
Code:
rm -R ~/.local/share/applications/*
rm -R ~/.gnome/share/apps/*
Note: Don't worry if it reads an error, your erasing them anyways.
Step 2:
So now, lets create a situation...
Ok so I double-click on a mp3 and of course lovely totem opens up. ROAR! I would rather have it open in my lovely Gtk-2 beep-media-player. Lets start out by editing the mime-types.
Code:
$ sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
Looks awesome, doesn't it! You'll notice browsing through the file that you will see...
Code:
audio/x-mp3=totem.desktop
audio/x-wav=totem.desktop
Well now wait, we don't want totem. We want BMP!!! All we need now is to figure out what bmp's desktop file is named. Of course, I'm super smart and took a guess it was 'bmp.desktop' little did I know that it was correct. If we didn't happen to know this you could always 'ls /usr/share/applications' and search for it there.
Time to edit those lines above and remove totem.desktop.
Code:
audio/x-mp3=bmp.desktop
audio/x-wav=bmp.desktop
Save and exit! Great, 1 step closer to super sweet audio associations! If you like you could also change some of the video mimes. I hated totem so I've made changes to use xine instead. So go back and make more changes if you please.
Step 3:
Now that we have the defaults edited, as I mentioned above "Open With" will destroy all. Lets take our time to edit the exact mime-types above in the mimeinfo.cache file.
Code:
$ sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
Take a gander around (or use ctrl f ) and you'll see something like..
Code:
audio/x-mp3=totem.desktop;rhythmbox.desktop;.....
audio/wav=realplay.desktop....
audio/x-wav=realplay.desktop....
Note: You may not have realplay.destop, depends on your system. We'll change these values anyways! Also, to the users who made more changes in step 2 please modify those correct values also.
Make the appropriate changes as I did below..
Code:
audio/x-mp3=bmp.desktop;
audio/wav=bmp.desktop;
audio/x-wav=bmp.desktop;
Note: You do need the semi-colon at the end of each line. So don't forget to include it. teehee!
Save and exit and your good there!
Step 4:
Final step, and yes it's easy . All you have to do now is make your changes final. I have yet to find another...simply just logout then back in to see the fantastic changes.
Note: I've tried 'update-mime-database' and 'update-desktop-datebase' and neither had ucceeded. So please do your self a favor, just logout and then back in. If you find an easier solution please notify me immediately.
Your possibilities are now endless. I have also edited my video mime's to open xine rather then totem. <3 Just read through the mime files and if you find something that looks interesting enough to change, do so and please your self. Linux is all about customizing to your perfection.
I hope this aids users who've already thrown 'hope' out the window.
EDIT: Users who don't use Beep-Media-Player and use XMMS. Change 'bmp.desktop' to 'XMMS.desktop'.
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