How to setup the default web browser in Kubuntu
May 16th, 2006
Kubuntu is a Ubuntu derived distribution. The only difference between the two is that Kubuntu comes with a KDE desktop environment; while Ubuntu has Gnome. Its just a matter of preference which one you want to use. Anyways; since Kubuntu is KDE based; it comes with its own web browser called “Konqueror”. To be honest I did not give Konqueror that much time to win me over. I am a pretty avid Firefox user and it was one of the first applications I installed. The problem that I ran into was that all our KDE applications were still using Konqueror as their browser. For example; whenever I would click on MSN inbox from Kopete; it would open up in Konqueror. That was pretty annoying to me; so I went about fixing it.
Here is my trial/error approach to try to figure out what setting to change.
- The first place I looked was in Kopete itself. I went into ‘Settings->Configure’ but could not find any relevant option.
- Lets look at Firefox itself now. If you look under ‘Edit->Preferences’; there is an option called ‘Default Browser’. Hmm.. this looks like the place
I asked ‘Firefox to check if it was the default browser’; but no such check came up. 
- Lets go to the System settings and see if something shows up there. Go to ‘System Settings’ under the KDE menu. Once I got to the “System Settings”; it took me a while to see where to go next. Eventually; I found the relevant option under ‘KDE Components’. Go to ‘Default Applications’; and set up your web browser here. I chose Firefox; and saved the settings. However; this did not affect the earlier behavior. Kopete still launched Konqueror whenever I clicked on a http link.
- Ok; at this point I was getting frustrated. So I launched Konqueror itself to see if there was any option that I can change there to ‘unset’ it as the default browser. Go to ‘Settings->Configure Konqueror’. Next go to ‘file associations’. This is where it gets a little bit confusing. Look for ‘text’ in the list of file types and expand that. Once you expand it; chose ‘html’. Now you will see that ‘Konqueror’ is listed ‘before’ Firefox. So that was the culprit! I went ahead and moved Firefox up in the list and now Kopete launches Firefox.
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Entry Filed under: Linux
18 Comments Add your own
1. woka | May 20th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
Many thanks for this helpful tip!
2. Anonymous | May 31st, 2006 at 6:30 am
Great tip fella!
3. Gold | May 31st, 2006 at 11:26 am
Dugg it. Cheers dude.
4. kolor | June 7th, 2006 at 3:22 am
many thanks, it was useful!
5. Bruce | June 16th, 2006 at 10:26 am
If only it worked for me :(. t-bird still says it
cannot find the browser. So, I’ve set it with FireFox,
the control panel and K-Browser all to no avail.
But thanks tho.
6. Diogo | July 2nd, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I had the same problem, but i just added firefox on the system settings as the default browser and it started to be default. I checked Konqueror settings and firefox is second choice for html files, but from kopete links go to firefox somehow. Have you inserted ‘/usr/bin/firefox’ when defining default web browser in the system settings?
Greets.
7. Mahesh | October 16th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Well, I tried both the above, but it looks like this seems to be a per-program setting. I was using Gaim, and saw that Gaim has a setting to open links in any browser of your choice! Damn, one other reason why Linux will not win over desktop users…
8. Ian | November 29th, 2006 at 3:47 am
Gnome apps such as thunderbird look for their defaults elsewhere.
Run the following:
sudo update-alternatives –config x-www-browser
and Thunderbird will open using whatever default browser you’ve set (using the above steps)
9. grajea | January 26th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
It works form me. Thanks!!
10. Pardus İçin Ä°ki KüçÃ&hellip | January 30th, 2007 at 7:11 am
[…] 1. Default web browser ayarlama […]
11. Como definir o web browse&hellip | May 6th, 2007 at 11:49 am
[…] 6th, 2007 · No Comments O artigo que explica como fazê-lo merece um digg it. Veja como em português: Inicie o Konquerore vá para ‘Settings->Configure Konqueror’. Em seguida vá para ‘file associations’. Procure por ‘text’ na lista de ‘file types’ e expanda. Escolha ‘html’. Verá que ‘Konqueror’ está listado antes de Firefox. Mova Firefox para o topo! […]
12. Pablonius Monk | July 12th, 2007 at 6:21 am
Thanks so much for the clearly described process for default browser. I am enjoying Kopete (on Ubuntu & Kubuntu) a lot more now!
13. Dave Miller | July 31st, 2007 at 8:54 am
Thank you!!
14. Andrew | August 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Thanks a tonne my friend!
15. Teinox | January 18th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Awesome… you helped me to do what I wanted to do in so short time!
Great! Thanks a lot!
16. Kevin | March 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
You are a Legend, thats been driving me nuts for ages!!!!
17. aranwe | April 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am
Great job man! problem solved
18. balgior | May 7th, 2008 at 10:10 am
+1 thank you!
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