Users of Linux Mint or other GNU/Linux distributions that use MATE Desktop environment have surely encountered this problem where xdg-open does not work properly.
This is most often seen when using Chromium browser and trying to open a downloaded file. Almost every time it fails to open the file with the right software. To fix this you have to fix xdg-open.
Here is a quick fix:
- Go to Menu > Terminal
- Enter gksu pluma /usr/bin/xdg-open
- Search for detectDE(), then above this line else DE=””, insert a new line:
elif [ x"$MATE_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID" != x"" ]; then DE=mate;
- Search for open_gnome(), then after the section of open_gnome() {…}, insert a new section:
open_mate() { if gvfs-open --help 2>/dev/null 1>&2; then gvfs-open "$1" else mate-open "$1" fi if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then exit_success else exit_failure_operation_failed fi }
- Search for this line case “$DE” in, and after this line, add a new section:
mate) open_mate "$url" ;;
- Save the file and retry the download links.