On Thu, 2012-03-29 at 08:11 -0500, Mark Stodola wrote:
> On 03/28/2012 04:58 PM, Kinzel, David wrote:
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: [log in to unmask]
> >> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> >> Behalf Of Mark Stodola
> >> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 3:30 PM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Firefox 10 system wide preferences
> >>
> >> I've never attempted to set system wide/global preferences for
> >> Firefox,
> >> but am now looking into how to do it.  Google has not been
> >> very kind in
> >> shedding light on the subject as all of the solutions site different
> >> file locations and names.
> >>
> >> I'm just looking to set the default homepage for now.  Is anyone
> >> successfully doing this?  Has it changed from Firefox 3.0,
> >> 3.6, and the
> >> current packaged 10?
> >>
> >> A working example and file path would be much appreciated.
> >
> > Hi Mark:
> >
> > I believe you should be able to update the global prefs.js in something like
> >
> > /usr/lib64/firefox-3.6/defaults/profile/prefs.js
> >
> > Eg something like
> >
> > user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://google.com")
> >
> > Anything in firefox "about:config" should be able to be set like that globally.
> 
> I'm actually trying on FF 10 on a 32bit install.
> I've been trying various filenames with those contents (also pref(), 
> lock_pref() and lockPref()) in:
> /usr/lib/firefox/
> /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/
> /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/preferences/ (this is where channel-prefs.js 
> exists)
> I even created /etc/firefox (and a few subdirectories based on a google 
> search.
> I'm stuck with the "file:///usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html", even after 
> clearing out ~/.mozilla.
> 
> I'm not looking for theoretical replies, but rather someone who is 
> _actually_ doing it and has it working.  There must be someone out there 
> who's got this worked out on SL/CentOS/TUV.

I haven't got it working yet but I'm also looking for the answer.
It definitely has changed in Firefox 10 though - I did have it
working in 3.6.

I've tried creating prefs.js in /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/preferences
with the contents:

pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://www.google.co.uk/");

If I then try to start up firefox I get a blank page so it has
made some difference; about:config also shows the change has been
made so I'm not sure why I get that blank page. The filename does
not even have to be prefs.js - any file gets read I think.

Have you searched for the current
"file:///usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html"? The only places that this
is referenced are in all the various langpack files
in /usr/lib/firefox/langpacks but these are all zipped directories.
I can't believe that it's necessary to change these - there must
be a different way.


-- 
Mark Whidby
Infrastructure Coordinator (Unix)
Physics/Chemistry/EAES/Mathematics Team
IT Services, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences