Mimetype Problem with OpenOffice Document (odt) Files

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Wed Jan 3 11:32:12 UTC 2007


On Wed, 2007-01-03 at 11:23 +0100, Patrick Steiner wrote:
> since i have installed latest java sdk (sun java 6) i have mimetype 
> problems with odt (openoffice document) files.
> 
> i cant open it via double click in nautilus?
> 
> i always get the following error:
> 
> The filename "foo.odt" indicates that this file is of type "ODT 
> document". The contents of the file indicate that the file is of type 
> "Java Archive".

Hmm, actually, they're both wrong...  The Java and ODT files are both
Zip archives of their data.  And you want to either treat each
differently by their file name, or whatever file content snooping is
done needs to delve deeper.

I've had the same problem with plain text files and M3U files (play
lists for XMMS, for example).  With Nautilus thinking that all text
files are plain, and to be opened by the same program.

> any ideas how i can set this back without uninstalling the jdk?

You can try right-clicking the file to get the properties box up, and
changing the open-with option.  Though you might get stuck with not
being able to set up separate preferences for ODT of Java JAR files.
But, I'd try it and see how you go.

The other thing that springs to mind is whether everything is up to
date?  Perhaps the file recognition system needs updating.  But, to be
honest, Nautilus is quite crap for file management, or even file
browsing.  Perhaps you might want to use something else.  Something that
lets you pick what opens what in a reliable manner.

Not sure whether you'd like to try modifying one of the files used for
filetyping:  /etc/gnome-vfs-mime-magic
or /usr/share/mime-info/gnome-vfs.mime

I've only briefly looked at what's going on behind the scenes with this.
With my version of the problem (M3U files), I looked at the files to see
why it recognised some but not others, then added what it was looking
for (#EXTM3U to the top of the file).  Unfortunately the program I was
using that generated them, XMMS, doesn't do that.  So it's a manual
thing for me to fix up.



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