How can I set a custom file as home page for new tabs in Firefox Desktop 107?
Hello, in past versions of Firefox, I was able to follow the steps on this page to set a custom HTML file on my PC as my home page for new tabs: https://peterries.net/blog/firefox-ubuntu-local-file/
I have Firefox 107.0.1 now and it's not happening. When I open the browser from scratch, I see my custom home page file. But when I open a new tab, I just see a blank screen. If I then click the Home icon on the toolbar, I do see my custom HTML page, but I don't want to have to click that button for each new tab.
Right now, in my settings, I have the URL to the page set as the custom URL for the HTML fiile, like this:
file:///home/peter/Documents/homepage/peter-home-homepage.html
That works. And I also have followed the steps on that blog post to customize my /usr/lib/firefox/autoconfig.cfg and my ../firefox/defalults/pref/autoconfig.js files. That's no longer working.
Did something in a recent version change? Is this no longer supported? Thanks for any ideas!
Chosen solution
Note that if you use the Snap Firefox version that you may not have permission to access this local file and you need to check this.
You can try Firefox from the official Mozilla server if you currently use a version from the repositories of your Linux distribution to see if it behaves differently.
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Hi thanks. Yes, I have set those settings as I think should work, but Firefox has never had a setting which allows a custom file to be used for new tabs. That's why I've used the custom instructions in the past and that worked, until about October 2022.
I am attaching an image showing what I have now in those settings.
Those steps should still work.
- /questions/1283835 firefox.cfg no longer overwrite new tab content
You can check the Browser Console for possible error messages. You can possibly add this line at the top of autoconfig.cfg:
// autoconfig.cfg starts with a blank line
Components.utils.reportError("TESTING autoconfig.cfg");
Chosen Solution
Note that if you use the Snap Firefox version that you may not have permission to access this local file and you need to check this.
You can try Firefox from the official Mozilla server if you currently use a version from the repositories of your Linux distribution to see if it behaves differently.
Thanks, cor-el. I switched from the Snap version to the version you linked me to and now this is working as I need again. New tabs open my custom HTML file now.
See also:
- /questions/1377872 How to open local files in Firefox 100 snap?
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/1972762