Arch Linux

I wonder why I cannot select Evince as my default PDF viewer. The default application window simply does not let me choose Evince.

Any ideas what to do alternatively?

Last edited by orschiro (2012-11-26 05:53:37)

#2 2012-11-25 22:12:26

lucke Member From: Poland Registered: 2004-11-30 Posts: 4,018

Re: [solved] Gnome set Evince as default PDF

See if perhaps setting NoDisplay to false in /usr/share/applications/evince.desktop changes anything.

#3 2012-11-25 22:28:23

diiis Member Registered: 2012-06-06 Posts: 33

Re: [solved] Gnome set Evince as default PDF

mimeopen -d

It might even work with nautilus.

#4 2012-11-26 00:59:43

mundigranja Member From: Galicia Registered: 2010-09-18 Posts: 23

Re: [solved] Gnome set Evince as default PDF

xdg-mime default evince.desktop application/pdf

#5 2012-11-26 05:57:06

orschiro Member Registered: 2009-06-04 Posts: 2,136 Website

Re: [solved] Gnome set Evince as default PDF

mundigranja's solution worked out. I was aware of the xdg way but I really wondered why this cannot be accomplished with Gnome on-board settings.

#6 2013-02-13 19:27:24

wombat23 Member Registered: 2011-01-14 Posts: 46

Re: [solved] Gnome set Evince as default PDF

I'm sorry I'm digging up this old post. I just had the same problem as the OP, after I had installed Inkscape.

xdg-mime default evince.desktop application/pdf

solved the problem for me. I wonder if there is a bug to file, though? does evince register itself not properly as a PDF viewer within GNOME or does Inkscape somehow overwrite this?

#7 2013-02-14 07:01:33

nickread Member Registered: 2012-03-23 Posts: 1

Re: [solved] Gnome set Evince as default PDF

wombat23 wrote:

I wonder if there is a bug to file, though? does evince register itself not properly as a PDF viewer within GNOME or does Inkscape somehow overwrite this?

There's already a bunch of bugs about this filed against most distros. Previously it was just an issue with it not displaying in the application menus, but I think a recent Gnome Shell version (3.4/3.6?) is also now respecting NoDisplay in the Open With / Default application list. I didn't have this problem on my previous Arch install from about 18 months ago up until two weeks ago - Evince was always the default app for opening PDFs - but with my shiny two-week-old Arch install it was a problem.

That said, using xdg-mime is the cross-desktop way of doing this at least.