Bug#1061292: xdg-utils: cannot set default-web-browser: $BROWSER is set and can't be changed with xdg-settings

[Vincent Lefevre]

Package: xdg-utils
Version: 1.1.3-4.1
Severity: important

I would like xdg-open to use sensible-browser instead of the default
firefox-esr.desktop. But I get the following error:

qaa:~> xdg-settings set default-web-browser sensible-browser.desktop
xdg-settings: $BROWSER is set and can't be changed with xdg-settings

$BROWSER is the configuration for sensible-browser, so I don't
understand why I get that.

Hmm... the xdg-settings seems to use $BROWSER internally. I don't know
the intent. In any case, $BROWSER is not honored by xdg-open (which
uses firefox-esr.desktop instead of $BROWSER).

-- Package-specific info:
Desktop environment: XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=

-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
  APT prefers unstable-debug
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable-debug'), (500, 'proposed-updates-debug'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.6.11-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

xdg-utils depends on no packages.

Versions of packages xdg-utils recommends:
ii  libfile-mimeinfo-perl  0.34-1
ii  libnet-dbus-perl       1.2.0-2+b1
ii  libx11-protocol-perl   0.56-9
ii  x11-utils              7.7+6
ii  x11-xserver-utils      7.7+10

xdg-utils suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent at vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)