Bug 87180

Summary:	Konqueror opens external application when typing an internet address in the address bar
Product:	[Applications] konqueror	Reporter:	Klaus Voelker <kavaumail-kde>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Konqueror Bugs <konqueror-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	asturm, bastian, kde, miklcct, scott
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Gentoo Packages
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Klaus Voelker 2004-08-14 06:44:02 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.92)
Installed from:    Gentoo Packages
Compiler:          gcc 3.3.3 
OS:                Linux

I have set Mozilla Firefox as my default browser in the KDE Control Center, but sometimes I still want to use Konqueror to view a web site. If I type an internet URL in the Konqueror address bar, however, Konqueror opens a new Firefox window to display the web site. This is clearly not the desired behavior. Typing an internet address in the Konqueror address bar should use the already existing Konqueror window instead.

I realize that this issue is made quite complicated by the double identity of Konqueror as a file manager and as a web browser. The only satisfactory solution, IMHO, is to allow different behavior for those two cases, that is:

- Start the default application (Firefox in my case) for html links if Konqueror is in file manager mode, but 

- Reuse the existing window if Konqueror is in web browser mode.

As a side note, instead of displaying the web page I typed in Konqueror's address bar, Firefox displays an error message: "The file /var/tmp/kdecache..... cannot be found. Please check its location and try again." I'm not sure if this is a KDE problem or a firefox problem, though.

Comment 1 Waldo Bastian 2004-08-16 16:55:20 UTC

*where* did you set firefox as your default browser?
In the file-associations? Or in the component chooser?

Comment 2 Waldo Bastian 2004-08-16 16:55:43 UTC

*where* did you set firefox as your default browser?
In the file-associations? Or in the component chooser?

Comment 3 Klaus Voelker 2004-08-16 21:41:59 UTC

I set the default browser in the component chooser. The file associations don't seem to have an effect then.

Inspired by your question, I now chose "based on the contents of URL" in the component chooser and set firefox as the default in the file associations. This has almost the desired effect: Links opened in Konqueror stay in Konqueror, while external links (i.e. in an email) are opened in Firefox. Firefox now integrates nicely with KDE.

I still have a gripe with this behavior, however: If Konqueror is started in File Manager mode, clicking on an HTML document opens it within Konqueror. It should open in Firefox, which is set as the default application.

Choosing "Show file in separate viewer" in the "Embedding" tab solves this problem, but introduces another problem: An HTML URL entered in Konqueror's address bar is still opened within Konqueror, but any link clicked on that page now gets opened in a new Firefox window.

I have two suggestions:

1) The mime type settings should only apply to HTML documents opened from the file manager or via external programs (KMail, ALT-F2, etc). Clicking on a link in a web page should load the linked page in the currently used application. I think this is what every user would expect.

2) I don't know if the component chooser's behavior makes sense from a developer's perspective, but from a user's perspective it seems broken. Maybe all the component chooser should do is change the default application for mime type HTML (i.e. have exactly the same effect as changing the file association in Konqueror).

After all this "criticism" I just want to add that I'm a big fan of KDE. Keep up the good work!

Best,
Klaus

Comment 4 Waldo Bastian 2004-10-16 22:04:37 UTC

Fixed for KDE 3.4: konqueror no longer opens links in an external browser.

Comment 5 Maksim Orlovich 2005-01-31 14:53:14 UTC

*** Bug 98251 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6 Dik Takken 2005-01-31 15:17:05 UTC

Is this going to be backported into KDE 3.3?

Comment 7 Waldo Bastian 2005-01-31 23:48:01 UTC

Not by me.

Comment 8 Maksim Orlovich 2005-02-18 16:09:31 UTC

*** Bug 95198 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9 Adam Williamson 2005-04-20 16:26:41 UTC

Can someone provide the exact location of this patch to make it easier to do a backport to 3.3? Thanks.

Comment 10 Michael Tsang 2022-01-14 23:53:28 UTC

This bug appears again at Konqueror 21.08.1, KDE Framework 5.86.0 on Ubuntu 21.10. It opens Firefox.

Comment 11 Andreas Sturmlechner 2022-01-20 16:26:09 UTC

(In reply to Michael Tsang from comment #10)
> This bug appears again at Konqueror 21.08.1, KDE Framework 5.86.0 on Ubuntu
> 21.10. It opens Firefox.
That's a different bug. https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=442636

konqueror-21.08.1 is outdated, your problem is fixed in 21.08.3, please update your distribution (or if 21.08.3 is not yet available on Ubuntu, complain on their bugtracker).