changing a file's default launcher

[sledgehammer]

On my system  when I left-mouse click to open, say, a pdf file, it occasionally opens in gimp or gwenview (something like that . . . I removed it). Usually I have been recently using the unwanted program.  When I right-click the file and try to change it to open with xpdf it says I don't have permission and makes me remove the check before "use this as default for this kind of file" before opening with the alternate program..  I then go into file properties and often have to change that.  Then click the file and it often still says that it it going to be opened by gimp or some other program (other than xpdf). Eventually, it seems to go ahead and change to the preferred program for that file, but not always (reason why I deleted gwenview). I obviously am doing something wrong or have something set up improperly. 

Any suggestions?  Or perhaps just point me to the place where the answer is.

John

[BlueMage]

If you're using SOHO with KDE, it's fairly simple - navigate to Control Centre > KDE Components > File Associations.  From there, you can set the priority of loading (ie, if the highest priority app fails to load, it'll move on to the next one) for all file types.  Using this, I was able to make Xine my default movie player on my media box.

Oh yes, you can also append commandline options in this manner - select the program you wish to use, click "Edit" and select the "Application" tab.  From there, the Command field is all yours.

Hope that's of assistance.

[sledgehammer]

Thanks BlueMage,

Thanks for the tips. I should have said that I am using Vector 5.8 (not SOHO).

John

[newt]

This link may help with file associations: http://www.ocmelbourne.com/reviews/xfce/xfce03.shtml

Associating file types with programs in XFce

If there are file types which you use regularly with the same program, it probably makes sense to associate that file type with the program you use. To do this, simply open the file ~/.xfce/xtree.reg in a plaintext editor. You will see existing lines such as:

(.lsm) (xedit) ()
(.mov) (xanim) (+Ae)
(.mpeg) (mtv) ()
(.mpg) (mtv) ()
(.pdf) (xpdf) ()

Just as the first line of this file says, it shows in order- the suffix (file extension), the program used to run it, and any optional arguments in brackets. Simply follow the format to add a new file type association. For example - I use XMMS to play my mp3 files, and I'm sick of having to type 'xmms' everytime I want to open an MP3. So all I do is add the following line to xtree.reg :

(.mp3) (xmms) ()

save it, and restart XFce (Simple 'Restart' doesn't seem to pick this change up, so you must logout, and log back in), and now, XMMS is the default app to load mp3s with! Nice.

Obviously you can use this to change existing file associations as well, so if you prefer to open .txt files in 'kwrite' instead of 'xedit' (as I do), you can simply edit this association as you desire.

[GrannyGeek]

There is no /.xfce in my home directory and no xtree.reg anywhere on the system.
--GrannyGeek

[sledgehammer]

I was just going to say the same thing.  No xtree on my system anywhere.

I think its a permissions problem.  The exact error message, when I try to get a pdf file not to open in xpdf rather than gimp is

Failed to set default application for "10-15-corrected-petition-page3aw.pdf".
Permission denied.

It will open fine if, but only if, I unselect the "Use as default for this kind of file."  I cannot change it to default open a pdf file with xpdf.

And it often (usually) opens pdfs correctly, with xpdf.  Must be some strange thing I did at one time with the filesystem or some such.

Any help is appreciated.

[sledgehammer]

I dealt with the problem in opening pdf files by deleting gimp, which takes forever to load.  But the problem remains.  It opens lyx files with adie and will not let me change (no permission).  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  I will happily try about anything now.  It may somehow be incidental to other problems.  Occasionally the machine boots very slow....something about ipup or some such seems to slow it down.  I have reloaded lilo a couple of times, did the reset default settings thing, reloaded a lot of programs that might be the problems.  Still, I am not good at permissions and I think I have a permissions problem.  If I knew the name of the program launcher I could go there and make sure I have the proper permissions set.

John

John

[lagagnon]

As you are using VL5.8 Standard you would be using xfce and its file manager: Thunar. The information you require to change what application Thunar boots for a specific file type is here: http://thunar.xfce.org/documentation/C/working-with-files-and-folders.html#opening-files

"ipup" sounds like something from PuppyLinux, not VL. When you reloaded lilo did you run "lilo -v" in order to rewrite the MBR? Also, to help with those boot problems could you please post to this thread the output from the following commands:

fdisk -l
cat /etc/lilo.conf
dmesg

Do those in a terminal (fidsk requires root access). Paste the output from a terminal into any GUI window by highlighting the text in the terminal, moving to another window and pasting with the middle mouse button.

 

[sledgehammer]

Hi lagagnon,

I tried to reload lilo again from VASM but did not see a -v option.  It may be on the Vector CD which, if I recall, has a lilo reload option.  I have not tried that.  I do note that the intermittent slow booting began immediately after I tried to change the keyboard on this Omnibook 900 machine.  Anyway, today at least, it has happily booted properly twice.

I then followed your fdisk -l suggestion and that is printed out below.  I also read the Thunar help page and went into preferences on Thunar and don't know if that helped as I also tried to load Thunar beta from gslapt and now Thunar doesn't work at all.  So I unloaded Thunar beta and Thunar still doesn't work (probably will when I reboot - I will post if rebooting doesn't fix Thunar). 

You may well be right on the puppy suggestion as I ran puppy on this machine for about a year before switching to vector.  I am very, very happy with Vector.  My recollection is that the Thunar file open problem probably applies mostly to files done 30 days or so ago and newer files seem to open properly. I am still verifying this.  Who knows, I may have fixed it.  If not, I can use xfe, which I like too (very slight preference for Thunar for most things).

Now to your request for information, which, by the way, I appreciate very much:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

root:# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1          62      497983+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda2   *          63        2494    19535040   83  Linux
/dev/hda3            2495        7296    38572065   83  Linux
vector://home/johwhi
root:# cat /etc/lilo.conf
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
default = linux
prompt
timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
  reset
bitmap = /boot/bitmap/boot.bmp
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769


# End LILO global section
# Partition 1: Linux GUI mode
image = /boot/vmlinuz
    root = /dev/hda2
    label = linux
    append = " "
    read-only

# Partition 2: Linux TUI mode
image = /boot/vmlinuz
    root = /dev/hda2
    label = linux-tui
    append = "2  "
    read-only

# Partition 3: Linux GUI mode
image = /boot/vmlinuz
    root = /dev/hda2
    label = linux-gui
    append = "4  "
    read-only

vector://home/johwhi
root:# dmesg
Linux version 2.6.18.5 (root@vector.linux.net) (gcc version 3.4.6) #2 SMP PREEMPT Sat Dec 9 19:01:25 MST 2006
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0c00 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000040e8800 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000040e8800 - 00000000040efc00 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000040efc00 - 00000000040ffc00 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000040ffc00 - 0000000014000000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0c00 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
320MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 81920
  DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:0
  Normal zone: 77824 pages, LIFO batch:15
DMI 2.1 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 HP-MCD                                ) @ 0x000f6ed0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 HP-MCD CL RSDT  0x03100000 PTL  0x01000000) @ 0x040e8bbb
ACPI: FADT (v001 HP-MCD CL FACP  0x03100000 HP   0x01000000) @ 0x040efb8c
ACPI: DSDT (v001 HP-MCD CL DSDT  0x03100000 MSFT 0x0100000a) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x8008
Allocating PCI resources starting at 20000000 (gap: 14000000:ebff0c00)
Detected 648.041 MHz processor.
Built 1 zonelists.  Total pages: 81920
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro root=302
Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- you can enable it with "lapic"
mapped APIC to ffffd000 (0128b000)
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 8192 bytes)
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Memory: 319028k/327680k available (3139k kernel code, 8076k reserved, 1229k data, 296k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 1296.63 BogoMIPS (lpj=648317)
Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0387f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0387f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 256K
CPU serial number disabled.
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000040 00000000 00000000 00000000
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
Freeing SMP alternatives: 16k freed
ACPI: Core revision 20060707
ACPI: setting ELCR to 0200 (from 0400)
CPU0: Intel Pentium III (Coppermine) stepping 03
SMP motherboard not detected.
Local APIC not detected. Using dummy APIC emulation.
Brought up 1 CPUs
migration_cost=0
NET: Registered protocol family 16
ACPI: bus type pci registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd9cb, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
Setting up standard PCI resources
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs *10)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs *10)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 5 7 9 10 11) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs *10)
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: Assume root bridge [\_SB_.PCI0] bus is 0
PCI quirk: region 8000-803f claimed by PIIX4 ACPI
PCI quirk: region 2180-218f claimed by PIIX4 SMB
Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: Embedded Controller [EC0] (gpe 9) interrupt mode.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGP_._PRT]
ACPI: Power Resource [PFAN] (off)
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
SCSI subsystem initialized
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
  IO window: e000-efff
  MEM window: fd000000-fedfffff
  PREFETCH window: 28000000-280fffff
PCI: Bus 2, cardbus bridge: 0000:00:04.0
  IO window: 00001000-000010ff
  IO window: 00001400-000014ff
  PREFETCH window: 20000000-21ffffff
  MEM window: 22000000-23ffffff
PCI: Bus 6, cardbus bridge: 0000:00:04.1
  IO window: 00001800-000018ff
  IO window: 00001c00-00001cff
  PREFETCH window: 24000000-25ffffff
  MEM window: 26000000-27ffffff
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10
PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 10
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.1 -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 196608 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 98304 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 8192)
TCP reno registered
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
apm: overridden by ACPI.
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
SGI XFS with ACLs, security attributes, large block numbers, no debug enabled
SGI XFS Quota Management subsystem
Initializing Cryptographic API
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered (default)
Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
ACPI: AC Adapter [ACAD] (on-line)
ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT1] (battery absent)
ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT2] (battery absent)
ACPI: Transitioning device [FAN] to D3
ACPI: Transitioning device [FAN] to D3
ACPI: Fan [FAN] (off)
ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1] C2[C2])
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports 8 throttling states)
ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (41 C)
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12ac
Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 16384K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
PIIX4: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:07.1
PIIX4: chipset revision 1
PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfcf0-0xfcf7, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfcf8-0xfcff, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: ST96812A, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hda: max request size: 512KiB
hda: 117210240 sectors (60011 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=16383/255/63, UDMA(33)
hda: cache flushes supported
 hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Loading Adaptec I2O RAID: Version 2.4 Build 5go
Detecting Adaptec I2O RAID controllers...
Adaptec aacraid driver (1.1-5[2409]-mh2)
scsi: <fdomain> Detection failed (no card)
NCR53c406a: no available ports found
sym53c416.c: Version 1.0.0-ac
qlogicfas: no cards were found, please specify I/O address and IRQ using iobase= and irq= optionsFailed initialization of WD-7000 SCSI card!
megaraid cmm: 2.20.2.7 (Release Date: Sun Jul 16 00:01:03 EST 2006)
megaraid: 2.20.4.9 (Release Date: Sun Jul 16 12:27:22 EST 2006)
megasas: 00.00.03.01 Sun May 14 22:49:52 PDT 2006
GDT-HA: Storage RAID Controller Driver. Version: 3.05
GDT-HA: Found 0 PCI Storage RAID Controllers
3ware Storage Controller device driver for Linux v1.26.02.001.
3ware 9000 Storage Controller device driver for Linux v2.26.02.007.
nsp32: loading...
ipr: IBM Power RAID SCSI Device Driver version: 2.1.3 (March 29, 2006)
libata version 2.00 loaded.
RocketRAID 3xxx SATA Controller driver v1.0 (060426)
st: Version 20050830, fixed bufsize 32768, s/g segs 256
usbmon: debugfs is not available
ohci_hcd: 2005 April 22 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v3.0
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:07.2 (0000 -> 0001)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 10
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.2[D] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: irq 10, io base 0x0000fcc0
usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
sl811: driver sl811-hcd, 19 May 2005
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
TCP bic registered
Initializing IPsec netlink socket
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Using IPI Shortcut mode
Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
Time: acpi_pm clocksource has been installed.
ReiserFS: hda2: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input0
IBM TrackPoint firmware: 0x0b, buttons: 3/3
input: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint as /class/input/input1
ReiserFS: hda2: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: hda2: journal params: device hda2, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
ReiserFS: hda2: checking transaction log (hda2)
ReiserFS: hda2: Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 296k freed
Linux video capture interface: v2.00
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:08.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
videodev: "Maestro radio" has no release callback. Please fix your driver for proper sysfs support, see http://lwn.net/Articles/36850/
maestro_radio: probe of 0000:00:08.0 failed with error -5
agpgart: Detected an Intel 440BX Chipset.
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe0000000
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:04.0 [103c:000d]
Yenta: Enabling burst memory read transactions
Yenta: Using INTVAL to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:04.0, mfunc 0x01021702, devctl 0x66
input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input2
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x08b8, PCI irq 10
Socket status: 30000020
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:04.1 [103c:000d]
Yenta: Using INTVAL to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:04.1, mfunc 0x01021702, devctl 0x66
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x08b8, PCI irq 10
Socket status: 30000006
piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.3: Found 0000:00:07.3 device
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x800-0x80f: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x170-0x177 0x370-0x37f
cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x800-0x80f: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x170-0x177 0x370-0x37f
cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.17.2 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
wlan: 0.8.4.2 (0.9.2.1)
ath_rate_sample: 1.2 (0.9.2.1)
ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.2.1)
es1968: clocking to 48000
PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: turboG rates: 6Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP
wifi0: mac 7.9 phy 4.5 radio 5.6
wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0x22000000, irq=10
Adding 497972k swap on /dev/hda1.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:497972k
ReiserFS: hda3: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
ReiserFS: hda3: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: hda3: journal params: device hda3, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
ReiserFS: hda3: checking transaction log (hda3)
ReiserFS: hda3: Using r5 hash to sort names
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (2560 buckets, 20480 max) - 224 bytes per conntrack
vector://home/johwhi
root:#

/////////////////////

John (who will reboot now and promptly post if Thunar doesn't work after reboot).

[sledgehammer]

Well, Thunar did not come back.  Also, Places on the panel didn' t work so I removed it and now it won't go back on.  Finally, the screen, except for the top bar and the panel bar is black when something is not loaded or running. No Vector gui.  And Thunar, root or non-root, won' t launch from the system popup

I think I will wait to hear from lagagnon or someone else before I screw it up further.   Xfe works fine so computer is usable in gui mode. I'm starting to think that I did something in root a couple of months ago that messed things up.  However, I sure don't want to reload Vector now unless I can restrict the reload to hda2, which contains the programs, i.e. I don' t want to risk data on hda3 if I don't have to and I would much prefer not to have to reload programs in hda2.

John

[lagagnon]

To be brutally honest it does sound as if you've unintentionally messed things up pretty well 
The problems you initially had were simple file association problems and did not require the sledgehammer approach you took by removing programs. The answers on how to get file associations were in my previous link I gave you in my last post.

Not to worry, there is a fix that won't mess up your home directory. You just re-install VL, where you get to the choosing your home partition screen (/dev/hda3), the following screen asks you what filesystem you want - at that screen you choose not to reformat. That will keep your present data in /home, although new /home/username/.config (and other setup stuff) directories will be written to /home. That is what you want.

Good luck.

[sledgehammer]

Thanks lagagnon,

To be brutally honest back:  thanks. Thanks very much.   I have to either learn more about computers or learn to stifle myself when in root.  You are not the first to point that out.  I will try your suggestion if I need to get Thunar back or if it quits or if this or that happens.  Very good to know that about the reload.  I have printed it out for future reference.

Right now, however, I am not all that sure I need Thunar.  Vector has survived my attack and is working well, sans Thunar.  The only thing so far I haven't been able to do without it is unmount my usb stick.  Any suggestions there?  I try umount but it says that /sda/vol1, according to fstab, is already unmounted. Perhaps it is, but it still shows on Desktop in xfe.

John

[sledgehammer]

Well, I figured out how to unmount the usb stick, so cancel this request.  I  view the umount file in Desktop and do the executable. 

Vector claims to be a distro that helps the user understand a bit about the workings of his computer and in my case that is sure true. 

Takes me a while, but, often with kind and necessary help of the forum, I generally get there.  I may not know how to overhaul the motor, but II can fix at least fix a few of the flats.  Kind of nice if you drive as much as I do.  Now if I can just quit looking for nails to run over.

John

[stoichyu]

Don't know if this is too late but, to change the default launcher, you can just right click the file and select open with other application, it gives the option of changing the default application.

[sledgehammer]

Appreciate the comments, Stoichyu,

Problem with doing that (and with a similar suggestion by lagagnon, referring me to http://thunar.xfce.org/documentation/C/working-with-files-and-folders.html#opening-files) was that something was/is wrong with my system and those suggestions failed, apparently due to a permissions problem.

However, the bright side of this is that I came to know xfe a lot better and so far at least prefer it to Thunar.  For my kind of use, it just seems to get me from file to file faster. I would often have 5 or 6 Thunar screens open at once and going from one to another was no piece of cake.

My boot problem has sort of standardized, i.e. I have learned that it goes into a slow stall at isopup on battery reboot but does not do that if I boot while plugged in.  Lagagnon referenced a way to reload lilo with a "lilo-v" option and I want to try that before trying to reinstall Vector.  And I will as soon as I figure out how.  I have re-installed lilo many times from the gui and from the vector disk without getting rid of the isopup problem.  Nonetheless, Vector is apparently bullet-proof, or nearly so.  The machine works well as it is, so long as I don't boot on battery, so long as I am content to click on the xfce mouse at the bottom of the screen (rather than right-click) to start programs, and so long as I am willing to do without the pretty Vector pictures.

John