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I run Firefox from a Flatpak but I can't find how to have it open links when I click them in various XDG-compliant apps. How can I have xdg-open run Firefox from a Flatpak distribution?

The application itself shows in preferences that it is not the default browser. It offers a button to set itself as default but it seems to have no effect.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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You need to use the xdg-settings command. This should return your current default browser:

xdg-settings get default-web-browser

To change it to your Flatpak version, do this:

xdg-settings set default-web-browser <your_flatpak_browser.desktop>

To validate your new settings, do this:

xdg-settings check default-web-browser <your_flatpak_browser.desktop>
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  • 2
    I had to scan my whole filesystem to find the .desktop file. It is located in /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/org.mozilla.firefox.desktop.
    – sleblanc
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 23:24
  • I should have guessed that, but I moved my flatpaks to $HOME so the locations are totally different and I couldn't remember where the default location was.
    – ajgringo619
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 23:27
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    The path leading to the directory is somehow already added to the list of directories that XDG will search in, but I had to find the actual name of the file. Then the command xdg-settings set default-web-browser org.mozilla.firefox.desktop managed to install it.
    – sleblanc
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 23:48
  • OK, good to know.
    – ajgringo619
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 23:48
  • xdg-settings set default-web-browser com.brave.Browser.desktop WFM
    – Dan Garthwaite
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 14:30
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In addition to the above posted:

xdg-settings set default-web-browser <your_flatpak_browser.desktop>

the following settings helped me:

xdg-mime default <your_flatpak_browser.desktop> x-scheme-handler/https x-scheme-handler/http

E.g.:

xdg-mime default org.mozilla.firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/https x-scheme-handler/http             
xdg-settings set default-web-browser org.mozilla.firefox.desktop
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0

For Linux Mint (21.2), the best way to set a flatpak-installed Firefox as the default browser was within Default Applications, Web Browser, then select "Other..." and enter

flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox "%s"
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