a clarification about pdf helpers Topic is solved

[Lucio Chiappetti]

I have instructed palemoon to open pdf documents from the web (or even local html pages) in acrobat. I get a popup like this, and according to the case select view or save

temp.png

.

Now I am preparing an USB key with various webpages, images and pdf documents to carry with me at a meeting, and I'm testing if I can access them (I do not know which browser will be available, but I tested with my local linux palemoon and an IE on a windows virtual machine).

The pdf file gives an odd behaviour with palemoon, which I encountered already on some external sites (usually transport timetables), i.e. if I click on Open with I get a popup "xxxx could not be opened because the associated helper application does not exist. Change the association in your preferences."

in this particular case the odd behaviour occurs if I access the file with file:///mnt/Directory/file.pdf (where /mnt is the mount point of the USB device), or from the automatic index page generated for file:///mnt/Directory. The document can be viewed OK if accessed as http://mylocalmachine/fudgedpath/mnt/Directory/file.pdf . The popup recognises the file as "Adobe Acrobat Document" and does not say any MIME type. The Preferences->Applications has these entries

temp1.png

and no obvious way to add a new entry or edit one (this is one of the thing I always regretted in PM and in FF before it, not being able to act at mailcap level)

Any idea of what can be causing a pdf file not to be recognized as "attached to an helper" ?

[Terryphi]

I have seen this behaviour at one website and assumed that the configuration of the server hosting the PDF document forced the download but Firefox offers the choice to open it and displays it correctly. Pale Moon shows the error message when open with default viewer is selected.

http://halfwayinn-carmarthen.co.uk/download/i/mark_dl/u/1501180/14159373/Christmas%20Carvery%202016.pdf

[Terryphi]

I have seen this behaviour at one website and assumed that the configuration of the server hosting the PDF document forced the download but Firefox offers the choice to open it and displays it correctly. Pale Moon shows the error message when open with default viewer is selected.

http://halfwayinn-carmarthen.co.uk/download/i/mark_dl/u/1501180/14159373/Christmas%20Carvery%202016.pdf

Checking mimeTypes.rdf I see that my PM has no entries for "pdf". Firefox does have entries for "pdf". Is this the reason?

[Terryphi]

In the example I gave the problem is solved in Linux Mint 18 by selecting /usr/bin/xreader as the application to open as opposed to Document Viewer (default). Possibly this is because Mint has changed the name of the default document viewer.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

Checking mimeTypes.rdf I see that my PM has no entries for "pdf". Firefox does have entries for "pdf". Is this the reason?

I have no familiarity with mimeTypes.rdf (documentation anywhere ?), contrary to .mailcap and .mime.types but (after reading your other post) I noticed that in Edit->Preferences->Applications I have three entries labelled "Adobe Acrobat Document" (one for application/pdf, one for application/force-download and one for application/save). I do not know why three and how they got there.

They are *correctly) set to "always ask" however the application/pdf has in the menu also "use Adobe Reader 9 (default)" (I do not know where it got it), while the other two had "use (default)" i.e. an empty link ! I added there /usr/bin/acroread (I do not know how to force an explanatory name or to replace the default entry) ... for both other mime types and now both your example link, and my USB file:// links can be viewed OK.. Thanks !

Still confused about which file should/ has been edited and how one does that correctly and precisely, but apparenty my problem is solved