Enabling "Set the default search engine to..." no longer works and breaks default search engine

[nodiscc]

Hi,
this problem is not present with the default user.js, but when enabling the preferences at https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js/blob/master/user.js#L207, the results are not what is expected

// PREF: Set the default search engine to DuckDuckGo (disabled)
// https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/948134
//user_pref("browser.search.defaultenginename",		"DuckDuckGo");
//user_pref("browser.search.order.1",				"DuckDuckGo");
//user_pref("keyword.URL", 							"https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=!+");  

• The default search engine is not set to DuckDuckgo
• The default search engine is set to Amazon (?)

Firefox ESR 52 on Debian 9 Stretch.

These preferences do not appear to work anymore. I believe keyword.URL was removed a long time (Firefox 2x?) ago to prevent malware from easily hijacking the default search engine. Re-disabling this preference block puts back Google as the default.

• I believe these prefs should be moved to ignore.list with a note that they are obsolete.

For info, manipulating the search engine preferences in Firefox 52 is done by editing search.json.mozlz4 in the profile directory. It is a custom compressed JSON file, instructions on how to edit it can be found here. Custom search engines can still be added as OpenSeach XML files at /usr/share/firefox-esr/distribution/searchplugins/common/*.xml (examples), but there I could not find a way to configure search engine order/defaults from a system-wide config file.

[pyllyukko]

We could remove the search engine stuff, as it's still mainly a case of personal preference. It would be awesome to have some Makefile targets to cope with search.json.mozlz4, but if it requires a separate script, then we probably wont go there.

[Atavic]

Bookmark your favourite search engine, as one of these.

Also see related: arkenfox/user.js#414

[pyllyukko]

I cherry-picked your commit.

[Atavic]

Another viable option is to write your own personal homepage and include your favourite search engine.

[nodiscc]

write your own personal homepage and include your favourite search engine

This is what I do with https://github.com/nodiscc/ohmpage - https://nodiscc.github.io/ohmpage/

I also use the search engines dropdown menu extensively

// PREF: Show new search bar menu (UI)
user_pref("browser.search.showOneOffButtons", true);

I have set the browser homepage to:

// PREF: Use custom startup homepage instead of about:home (UI)
// https://github.com/nodiscc/ohmpage
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "/usr/share/ohmpage/index.html");

I am still looking for a way to set the new tab page to this page.