Ubuntu – How to set a “custom” browser as default in Preferred Applications

11.04browserdefault-browserdefault-programs

I'm trying to set up Conkeror as my default browser. However, in the Preferred Applications menu, this is not an option, nor do I see a method of inputting a custom setting/command.

Does anyone know a way round this?

[Edit: I've tried (1) using sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser as well as using gconf-editor to edit /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http, /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https, /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec. Neither of these seems to work. ]

Best Answer

sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

Result shoud be:

There are 3 choices for the alternative x-www-browser 
(providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                       Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/xlinks2            69        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/chromium-browser   40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/firefox            40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/xlinks2            69        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

But you will have conkeror too.

Result after choosing 1:

update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/chromium-browser to provide /usr/bin/x-www-browser (x-www-browser) in manual mode.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Set default browser to OPEN browser

Here's something that works:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys, commands

browsers = [
    "firefox",
    "google-chrome",
    "chromium-browser",
    "epiphany-browser",
]

done = False
ps = list(i.split()[10] for i in commands.getoutput("ps aux").split("\n")[1:])
for i in browsers:
    if any(j.endswith(i) or j.endswith(i+"-bin") for j in ps) and not done:
        commands.getoutput(i + " " + (" ".join(sys.argv[1:]
            if len(sys.argv) - 1 else "")))
        done = True

if not done:
    commands.getoutput(browsers[0]["cmd"] + " " + " ".join(sys.argv[1:]))

Just re-order the list on top of the file any way you like, add and remove browsers. The command you enter will be whatever you would type in the command-line to start this browser.
save this script somewhere, right click on it, go to properties → permissions and set executable. I recommend saving it in /home/<username>/.browser.
Find the file (hit Ctrl+H to show hidden files), right click and select Properties, then go to Permissions and set Allow executing file as program.
Go to System → Preferences → Preferred Applications, select Custom and type /home/<username>/.browser into the Command field.

The first browser that appears in the list and is running will be chosen to open the web site. If none of them is running, the first one will be opened.

I've tested this and it seems to work rather well, none the less, let me know if there are any errors in it. And it'd be cool if there was a method to do this that doesn't involve programming, this is just my peculiar solution.