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Asked: 2012-01-13 06:50:41 +0800 CST

How do I set a wine program (ex. Foxit Reader for Windows) as the default program?

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I regularly annotate pdf files and unfortunately there is no good linux pdf reader that supports decent annotations. Evince has a very rudimentary and buggy annotation feature. So I'm stuck using a Windows viewer through wine.

This works pretty well but, when I simply right-click a file (in this case a pdf), properties, open with and selected Foxit Reader, the Unity Launcher icon remained the wine icon instead of the application icon.

Has anyone set a wine program as the default program for any file?

Any ideas?

wine

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I solved the problem myself. Here's how:

    Step 1: Create script

    I followed the procedure in the https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wine page:

    gedit ~/.wine/Foxit5

    Now paste the following script in it, save and close gedit. If you changed the installation path, modify the 2nd line accordingly.

    #!/bin/sh

QUICKPARLOCATION="c:\\Program Files\\Foxit Software\\Foxit Reader\\Foxit Reader.exe"
PARAM=`winepath -w "$*"`
wine "$QUICKPARLOCATION" "$PARAM"
exit 0

    Make sure the file is executable with this command.

    chmod +x ~/.wine/Foxit5

    Step 2: Create .desktop file

    Info from this site: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1863021

    1. cd to the directory /usr/share/applications
    2. use 'grep -i foxit *' this will search for the name foxit ignoring case.
    3. if it's not there make one from one of the smaller ones.
    4. I used sol.destop and copied it to my own fake app.

    5. Don't forget the %f, this shows that the application can be passed a file name, it has to be there to show up in the list.

      sudo cp sol.desktop foxit.destop

      gksudo gedit foxit.desktop

    foxit.desktop Code: (I created an icon and saved it in the .icons folder)

    [Desktop Entry]
Name=Foxit Reader 5
Comment=Read and annotate pdf files
Exec=~/.wine/Foxit5 %f
Icon=~/.icons/Foxit.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Office;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=Foxit
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=foxit reader
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=Zwischenlager
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=3.2.1
StartupNotify=true
X-HildonDesk-ShowInToolbar=true
X-Osso-Service=org.gnome.Games.AisleRiot
X-Osso-Type=application/x-executable
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=aisleriot

    Step 3: Set as default

    Open file manager and find any pdf file. Click properties. Open with. Show all. Choose Foxit Reader

    That's it! Well sort of… This method works only if Foxit reader 4 is not running. If it is a "file not found" error pops up.

    EDIT: This methods works fully with Foxit Reader 5 but you would need to install wine 1.5 for this version to work. Visit http://www.winehq.org/download/ubuntu to do so.

    • 6

  2. I would do what zetah says:

    go to:

    http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/

    In the drop down select:

    Desktop Linux

    In the pop-up dialog box select package type:

    deb

    Then you can install the .deb file

    sudo dpkg -i FoxitReader_1.1.0_i386.deb

    Being honest though I have found the built-in PDF reader to meet all my expectations and have not needed Foxit on the Ubuntu side of things. I do use Foxit on my Windows VM though.

    If you need advanced features like Annotations and Hilighting you can use:

    [Okular][3] or even Inkscape

    • 3

  3. I'd suggest you to take a look in 2 related answers on how setting default applications: this one and this another one.

    Note that it should not be necessary to run Foxit Reader via Wine, as there is a Ubuntu package for it already.

    • 0

  4. There's a Foxit Reader version for Linux: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf-reader/

    It's a .tar.gz file and they give instructions for installation.

    • 0