Aditya Mooley

Yes, I am writing a blog post for a task that sounds very simple to achieve – just with a click of a button. But this is not true, atleast  with Kubuntu 9.04. If  you are coming to this post through search engine then you have already gone through this pain. If not, give it a try 😉

Surprisingly, the browser’s functionality of setting it as default doesn’t work in Kubuntu. At the same time, changing it manually from System Settings -> Default Applications doesn’t seem to work either.

To set one of your browser as default browser, you have to run the command

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

You will see the list of browsers currently available in your system and then you will enter the number for the browser you want to set as default. My console with 3 browsers was something like follows

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

There are 3 alternatives which provide `x-www-browser'.

Selection    Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
+        1    /usr/bin/konqueror
2    /usr/bin/firefox-3.0
*         3    /usr/bin/google-chrome

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number:

That is it. Enter the number for the browser you like and hit ENTER. You have your browser set as default.