Fish shell

Support and Help
1

Ubuntu Version:

24.04

Desktop Environment (if applicable):

I do not know

Problem Description:

When I type “help” in Fish shell , it opens Thunderbird mail instead of Firefox. Help is being displayed in xdg-open. I made sure Firefox is default browser.

Relevant System Information:

Screenshots or Error Messages:

10905, Main Thread] WARNING: GTK+ module /snap/thunderbird/644/gnome-platform/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libcanberra-gtk-module.so cannot be loaded.

GTK+ 2.x symbols detected. Using GTK+ 2.x and GTK+ 3 in the same process is not supported.: ‘glib warning’, file /build/thunderbird/parts/thunderbird/build/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:187

(thunderbird-esr:10905): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:30:51.957: GTK+ module /snap/thunderbird/644/gnome-platform/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libcanberra-gtk-module.so cannot be loaded.
GTK+ 2.x symbols detected. Using GTK+ 2.x and GTK+ 3 in the same process is not supported.
Gtk-Message: 11:30:51.957: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”
[10905, Main Thread] WARNING: GTK+ module /snap/thunderbird/644/gnome-platform/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libcanberra-gtk-module.so cannot be loaded.
GTK+ 2.x symbols detected. Using GTK+ 2.x and GTK+ 3 in the same process is not supported.: ‘glib warning’, file /build/thunderbird/parts/thunderbird/build/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:187

(thunderbird-esr:10905): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:30:51.958: GTK+ module /snap/thunderbird/644/gnome-platform/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libcanberra-gtk-module.so cannot be loaded.
GTK+ 2.x symbols detected. Using GTK+ 2.x and GTK+ 3 in the same process is not supported.
Gtk-Message: 11:30:51.958: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”
[ImapModuleLoader] Using nsImapService.cpp
[GFX1-]: glxtest: libpci missing<----

What I’ve Tried:

echo $BROWSER | read -at fish_browser
cat ~/.config/fish/config.fish
sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk3-module
apt list --installed | grep canberra-gtk-module
xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/http
xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/https
xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler ftp firefox.desktop

2

To find that out use this:

inxi -S
### Mine
System:
  Host: cachyos-x8664-zfs Kernel: 6.14.1-2-cachyos arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 Distro: CachyOS

When you type “help” in the Fish shell, it should not open Thunderbird mail; instead, it is intended to display help messages or documentation related to the Fish shell.

If “help” is causing Thunderbird to open, it suggests that your system’s “mailto” protocol is set to use Thunderbird as the default email client, which might be interfering with the shell command.

To resolve this, you should check and change your system’s default email client settings to ensure that “mailto” links open in the desired application, such as Firefox or another browser, rather than Thunderbird.

I have mine set to cachy-browser (Firefox with extra security settings)

2025-04-08_10-34
2025-04-08_10-341812×550 137 KB

Some Lite reading: Change which mail application is used to write emails

❯ echo $SHELL
/bin/fish



❯ less '/home/me/.config/fish/config.fish' 
source /usr/share/cachyos-fish-config/cachyos-config.fish

# overwrite greeting
# potentially disabling fastfetch
#function fish_greeting
#    # smth smth
#end
3

help - display fish documentation

Perhaps fish shell can’t find $BROWSER and searches for an alternative.

fish_config - start the web-based configuration interface

4

Thank you for your response. I do not know, I went to my mail setting to see if I could do anything, but at this point its all Greek to me. :slight_smile:

5

I finally found out why, one of the settings in fish was set to thunderbird instead of firefox, so i changed it and now it works.

2 Likes