Can't change mime info

["Peter L. Hurd" <phurd ualberta ca>]

Hey All,

I am unable to change mime information for several types of files.

For instance nautilus displays *.sxw files with the default icon, if I
"open with.." -> "other application" I am told that no application is
associated with this file type.  I then choose "Associate Application"
and an "edit file type" dialog opens identifying the file as mime type
application/x-openoffice with an appropriate icon etc.  Pressing ok pegs
out the cpu for about 10sec (top shows nautilus) but no change is ever
registered in behaviour in nautilus.

Similar behaviour, unable to set default actions for file types,
inability to change icons for existing mime-types etc, is seen.

I cannot seem to get an error messages to see what's going wrong, any
suggestions?

This behaviour has existed since at least upgrading to RH9, and has
persisted despite installing ximian XD2...

TIA,

-- 
Peter L. Hurd                                  Department of Psychology
Assistant Professor                               University of Alberta
Ph 780.492-3578, Fax 780.492-1768                     Edmonton, Alberta
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~phurd                      T6G 2E9 Canada