How to set Nautilus as the default FTP handler in Linux

How To Linux Ubuntu
Friday, January 22nd 2010, 18:03
8 Comments

After I had installed Firefox 3.6 on my Ubuntu machines I noticed that when I would want to open the FTP bookmarks saved in Nautilus those targets would open in tabs from Firefox. The problem with this approach was that I couldn’t edit files (create, update, delete) the way I could with Nautilus. After some diggings I found out that this change in behavior was due to the fact that at some point I chose Firefox to be the default browser (which was something fully assumed because it’s my favorite browser). Doing this associates Firefox as the handler for ftp:// links instead on relaying that part to Nautilus.

Unfortunately the solution for this problem doesn’t have a graphical approach. It’s not something you choose in your Preferred Applications. Instead one has to edit the %gconf.xml file located in the ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/ftp folder and make it look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
        <entry name="needs_terminal" mtime="1264151220" type="bool" value="false"/>
        <entry name="enabled" mtime="1264151220" type="bool" value="true"/>
        <entry name="command" mtime="1264151220" type="string">
                <stringvalue>/usr/bin/nautilus</stringvalue>
        </entry>
</gconf>

The important line here is the one located between the stringvalue tags. I just hope that in the next versions of GNOME these kind of things will be easier to maintain by providing a GUI for the user. This is one aspect that Linux still has to improve. It won the servers, but let’s make it reach the desktops too.

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8 Comments

  • Max January 21st, 2011 at 20:50

    Thanks for the tip.

    However the same setting can be changed in gconf-editor (I did), so there is a GUI solution :-)

    Reply
  • Julian May 3rd, 2011 at 22:18

    Wow, I was looking for this, and I couldn’t find it in internet.

    Max is right, you can change it in gconf-editor (like regedit under windows)

    Thank you very much!

    Reply
  • Mike May 4th, 2011 at 11:56

    This doesn’t work in ubuntu 11.04…

    Anyone know a workaround?

    Reply
  • EFZ May 9th, 2011 at 09:15

    I couldn’t find a solution on Natty Narwhal (ubuntu 11.04), but I finally found it myself.

    All you have to do is :

    #sudo gedit /etc/gnome/defaults.list

    Add the following line :
    x-scheme-handler/ftp=nautilus-folder-handler.desktop

    Save and close, no need to reboot.

    Reply
  • EFZ May 9th, 2011 at 09:17

    It seems to be due to gvfs-open handling files/extensions associations intead of gnome-open.

    Reply
  • Auff May 17th, 2011 at 15:29

    Thanks EFZ, that worked perfectly.

    Reply
  • alfonzo bonzo June 11th, 2011 at 15:22

    On ubuntu natty 11.04 I also had to edit another file to get gvfs-open to use nautilus:

    ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

    search for ftp in this file, and make sure it is set to nautilus as below (mine was set to firefox)

    x-scheme-handler/ftp=nautilus;

    Reply

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