LyX: change PDF viewer

Question

In LyX, how can I set Ubuntu's document viewer (Evince) as the preferred PDF reader for the generated PDF files?

All of a sudden it started using Okular, which I don't like all that much.

Answer 1

Go to Tools > Preferences > File Handling > File Formats. Choose the file format. I am guessing that you want PDF (pdflatex). Change "viewer" to "evince". You are done.

The reason it all of a sudden started using Okular is because you installed Okular after you installed LyX and you did Tools > Reconfigure (or you did something that triggered that).

Why does LyX favor Okular over Evince. Here is my interpretation: Evince is the default viewer in Ubuntu. Suppose you install a program that is not the default program (e.g. Okular). If I had to make a guess as to whether you prefer Evince or Okular, I would guess that you prefer Okular because you went to the trouble to install it, not the program that came with Ubuntu.

Answer 2

I cannot explain why, but that worked for me:

In LyX 2.0.4 in Tools > Preferences must be something as

okular --unique "file:$$o#src:$$n $$t"

that you can change to other options, as evince:

synctex view -i $$n:0:$$t -o $$o -x "evince -i %{page+1} $$o"

In theory, that must be enough. This change must be saved in ~\.lyx\preferences.

However, I was surprised because in my Ubuntu this change does nothing, even after several reconfigure and restart (bug or feature?).

So I tried, maintaining the above evince configuration:

1. Close LyX
2. sudo apt-get remove okular (please note that this also remove kubuntu-desktop)
3. lyx --> Now LyX use evince as viewer. Test it and close LyX again.
4. sudo apt-get install okular
5. lyx --> LyX still use evince. Thus, solved (I think).