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About:home search engine, how can i change it to DuckDuckGo?

  • 5 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by josh522

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I want to be able to use the DuckDuckGo search engine on the about:config page, but I've tried everything and I can't get it to work.

I have tried the following: 1. Creating a new Firefox profile with all the default settings, no extensions, plugins, custom settings, NOTHING. 2. made DuckDuckGo my default search engine in the search box 3. verified these settings in about:config

browser.search.selectedEngine;DuckDuckGo browser.search.order.1;DuckDuckGo browser.search.defaultenginename;DuckDuckGo

I have restarted the browser multiple times and all i get is a completely unresponsive search box on the about:home page. Nothing happens at all when i click the search button after i set browser.search.defaultenginename to DuckDuckGo.

Please help

I want to be able to use the DuckDuckGo search engine on the about:config page, but I've tried everything and I can't get it to work. I have tried the following: 1. Creating a new Firefox profile with all the default settings, no extensions, plugins, custom settings, NOTHING. 2. made DuckDuckGo my default search engine in the search box 3. verified these settings in about:config browser.search.selectedEngine;DuckDuckGo browser.search.order.1;DuckDuckGo browser.search.defaultenginename;DuckDuckGo I have restarted the browser multiple times and all i get is a completely unresponsive search box on the about:home page. Nothing happens at all when i click the search button after i set browser.search.defaultenginename to DuckDuckGo. Please help

Chosen solution

It must have been a problem with the search plugin.

My search plugin xml file now reads:

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>DuckDuckGo</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Search DuckDuckGo (SSL)</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,*img data removed*</os:Image>
<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://duckduckgo.com">
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
  <os:Param name="kd" value="-1"/>
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>


The search-box works now!

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All Replies (5)

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Current Firefox versions use the default search engine (pref: browser.search.defaultenginename) to set the search engine that is used on the about:home page.

Check the browser.search.defaultenginename pref on the about:config page.

  • browser.search.defaultenginename

Currently selected search engine:

  • browser.search.selectedEngine

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.
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I've already tried all of that, but i tried it again just in case, and the search box still doesn't even function now. I can click search and nothing happens after i changed the browser.search.defaultenginename value to DuckDuckGo.

I've gotten it to change back to google, and i can even get it to change to yahoo, but for some reason when I try to use DuckDuckGo, it just breaks the search box.

help

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Do you have DuckDuckGo installed as one of the search engines for the search bar on the Navigation Toolbar?

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Yes, it's installed. Here's the xml file:

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/"> <ShortName>DuckDuckGo</ShortName> <Description>Search DuckDuckGo (SSL HTML)</Description> <InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding> <Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,*removed*</Image> <Url type="text/html" method="POST" template="https://duckduckgo.com/html/">

 <Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>

</Url> </SearchPlugin>

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Chosen Solution

It must have been a problem with the search plugin.

My search plugin xml file now reads:

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>DuckDuckGo</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Search DuckDuckGo (SSL)</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,*img data removed*</os:Image>
<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://duckduckgo.com">
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
  <os:Param name="kd" value="-1"/>
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>


The search-box works now!

Modified by cor-el