I have set my default web browser to '/usr/lib/MozillaFirefox/firefox "%s"' in the Preferred Applications dialog. If I create a new document named "aaa.html" and click on it, instead of opening it in firefox, it opens it in epiphany. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Emerge info output: Portage 2.0.51-r3 (default-linux/x86/2004.0, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r0, 2.6.8-gentoo-r7 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.8-gentoo-r7 i686 AMD Athlon(TM) XP 1800+ Gentoo Base System version 1.6.5 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r5 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.15.92.0.2-r1 Headers: sys-kernel/linux-headers-2.4.22 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r6 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-pipe -O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-pipe -O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.las.ic.unicamp.br/pub/gentoo/ http://open-systems.ufl.edu/mirrors/gentoo http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow X aalib alsa apm avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bonobo cdr crypt cups dga encode esd f77 fam flac foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile imagemagick imlib java jpeg libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mozilla moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mpeg mysql ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sasl sdl spell ssl svga tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype unicode x86 xml xml2 xmms xv zlib"
Can't confirm this, works fine for me here switching epiphany for firefox. May be a dupe of #64023.
the problem is that it's two different things you are trying to do. Opening an html file is opening a document local, it uses the default mime system : try rightclicking on one to see a selection of applications available to open an html document. That may be browsers, but also editors. Opening an http(s) url is done by the preferred applications webbrowser, so clicking a link somewhere is what this setting controls. As such this is not a bug, although it could arguably be improved upstream.