can't globally set Firefox 3.5 homepage

[rootchick]

Binary package hint: firefox

At first I thought this was an issue with ubufox, but it occurs if I disable ubufox as well. This is on a fairly fresh install of Karmic (from the alternate cd, and updated) with Firefox 3.5.5 and no extensions installed (except ubufox, originally). If I try to globally set the homepage for all users as described below, instead of opening the homepage I've specified, it opens a blank page. If I hit the Home button, it goes to http://www.mozilla.org (*not* the homepage I specified). However, if I look in about:config, the preference "browser.startup.homepage" is indeed set to the web page I specified. The error console has this error:

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIPrefBranch.getComplexValue]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: file:///usr/lib/firefox-3.5.5/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js :: anonymous :: line 525" data: no]
Source File: file:///usr/lib/firefox-3.5.5/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js
Line: 507

To reproduce:

With ubufox enabled, add the following line to /etc/firefox-3.0/pref/ubufox.js:
pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://ubuntu.com");

--or--

With ubufox disabled, add the same line to /etc/firefox-3.5/pref/firefox.js.

[Drew Scott Daniels (drewdaniels)]

A workaround is discussed at: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/581585?s=home%20page&as=q
The workaround is to change the user preferences template. I don't think this effects existing users. The relevant file(s) are:
/etc/firefox-3.5/profile/prefs.js
/usr/lib/firefox-3.5.7/defaults/profile/user.js

Another more ugly workaround is put a pre-built profile in skel, and then search all existing profiles and change them. There might be a plugin that could be used as another workaround.

rootchick, have you tried changing the example target file from /etc/firefox-3.0/pref/ubufox.js?
pref("browser.startup.homepage", "file:/usr/share/doc/ubufox/example-homepage.properties");

The example properties file says:
browser.startup.homepage=http://www.ubuntu.com

It should work without the intermediate file step, but I think it's worth a test. I'll give it a try on my system momentarily.

     Drew Daniels
Resume: http://www.boxheap.net/ddaniels/resume.html

[Drew Scott Daniels (drewdaniels)]

I'm marking myself as affected as I can reproduce the problem. I tried using the example properties file, I also tried changing browser.startup.homepage to:
startup.homepage_override_url
and startup.homepage_welcome_url

I'll do some more testing, but it's hard to log this without writing the steps as I go.

     Drew Daniels
Resume: http://www.boxheap.net/ddaniels/resume.html

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

I'm looking at firefox 4.0.1 in Ubuntu Natty. The pref now appears to live in /etc/xul-ext/ubufox.js, and it seems that the intermediate file step is necessary. But it *is* actually possible to set the Firefox homepage globally now---even though the pref name is misleading, and really ought to be documented better for that reason.

I'm therefore marking this bug as Incomplete. If there are any issues still outstanding, please switch it back to New.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for firefox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]