I always get text/plain
or application/octet-stream
when running "mimetype" on all file types.
The command "file –mime-type" seems to identify correctly the different file types. For instance, if I run it on a PDF file, I get
filename.pdf: application/pdf
But if I try to run "mimetype" on the same PDF file, I get
filename.pdf: text/plain
Similarly, if I run "file –mime-type" on a mp3 file, I get
filename.mp3: audio/mpeg
But if I try to run "mimetype" on the same mp3 file, I get
filename.mp3: application/octet-stream
As a consequence, I cannot open some files with the suitable application. For example. I cannot open a PDF file with evince. And I cannot set the "Open with" option of Nautilus to open each file-format with the suitable application.
I have tried to run sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
but it does not fix the problem.
I have noticed that, if I run "mimetype" as the first user, I get this message
WARNING: You don't seem to have a mime-info database. The shared-mime-info package is available from http://freedesktop.org/
However the shared-mime-info package seems to be correctly installed.
Best Answer
The problem was solved reinstalling the
shared-mime-info
package, as suggested by Glutanimate, with