Description of problem: Every time when the firefox package is upgraded, if the user set their home page to about:home/about:newtab (Firefox upstream default), the upgrade changes that to Fedora's default https://start.fedoraproject.org/ Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 93 -> 94 upgrade and every previous upgrade How reproducible: 1. Under Firefox Settings set "Homepage and new windows" to "Firefox Home (default)" from dropdown, or "Custom URL" with about:home or about:newtab 2. Upgrade firefox package with dnf when a new version comes out 3. User's preferred home page gets discarded and reverted to https://start.fedoraproject.org/ Expected results: Don't override user's home page of choice.
I wonder what can cause it because I don't see is....I use 'Firefox Home (Default)' and it's kept by update.
By the way, I found that this was previously reported/mentioned under this bug 1660243 here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1660243#c3
Apologies for the double comment! Multiple users also report facing this issue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/mtyqj9/how_to_prevent_fedora_from_changing_firefox_start/ I have tried setting homepage to "Firefox Home (Default)" as well as Custom URL about:home and about:newtab, but it didn't keep my setting either way. How can this be diagnosed and narrowed down? Maybe some dnf logs when the next Firefox package update comes out?
What do you have under browser.startup.homepage pref at about:config page? I have these prefs set and the page is not re-set for me during update: (type homepage in the search field) browser.startup.firstrunSkipsHomepage true browser.startup.homepage about:home browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.enabled false browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.loglevel Warn browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20211101113533 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 94.0 pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.current_page false pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.restore_default false services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.startup.homepage true startup.homepage_override_url startup.homepage_welcome_url about:welcome startup.homepage_welcome_url.additional I also recall that homepage can be tied to localization - which Firefox localization do you run?
These are all of the prefs that show up for "homepage". They look identical to yours. And under the Firefox Settings GUI it's currently set to "Firefox Home (default)" for both homepage and new tabs. browser.startup.firstrunSkipsHomepage true browser.startup.homepage about:home browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.enabled false browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.loglevel Warn browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20211101135957 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 94.0 services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.startup.homepage true startup.homepage_override_url startup.homepage_welcome_url about:welcome startup.homepage_welcome_url.additional As for locale/language, everything is set to English (United Kingdom): under GNOME Settings system Language and Formats, as well as the main Firefox language setting in Settings ("Choose the languages used to display menus, messages, and notifications from Firefox")
Here's what I have under browser.startup: browser.startup.blankWindow false browser.startup.couldRestoreSession.count 2 browser.startup.firstrunSkipsHomepage true browser.startup.homepage data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://start.fedoraproject.org/ browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.enabled false browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.loglevel Warn browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20211101141339 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 94.0 browser.startup.lastColdStartupCheck 1636832544 browser.startup.page 1 browser.startup.upgradeDialog.enabled true browser.startup.upgradeDialog.version 94 services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.startup.homepage true services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.startup.page true I will often set my homepage to an extension (Tabliss), but it doesn't seem to matter.
I've had my homepage reset to fedoraproject after most firefox updates over the last few years. However, this time I've had to repeatedly reset it after this update -- possibly because of Firefox Sync? (You can see I subscribed to this bug on Friday as it was already annoying me then) Logging on to my workstation this morning, my homepage is reset (again). This is the results for "homepage" right away: browser.startup.firstrunSkipsHomepage true browser.startup.homepage data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://start.fedoraproject.org/ browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.enabled false browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.loglevel Warn browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20211101141339 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 94.0 extensions.lastpass.showHomepageAfterLogin true services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.startup.homepage true startup.homepage_override_url startup.homepage_welcome_url about:welcome startup.homepage_welcome_url.additional And after manually fixing my homepage back to my preference: browser.startup.firstrunSkipsHomepage true browser.startup.homepage about:home browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.enabled false browser.startup.homepage.abouthome_cache.loglevel Warn browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20211101141339 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 94.0 extensions.lastpass.showHomepageAfterLogin true services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.startup.homepage true startup.homepage_override_url startup.homepage_welcome_url about:welcome startup.homepage_welcome_url.additional
I don't use Firefox Sync - It's possible that it causes it.
You're right, it seems like the recurring issue I've had this week may be exacerbated by Firefox Sync. But I think the underlying issue is still a Fedora one. I never have my home page reset to a stock Mozilla page after version updates on Windows, for example.
I can also confirm that this issue is specific to Fedora. I have been using Firefox Sync for years on Android, Windows, and several other Linux distros without issue. Homepage being reset to Fedora's default only happens to the PC that's using Fedora.
It's possible that Fedora uses wrong way how to set up the homepage. Right now we set: pref("startup.homepage_override_url", ""); pref("browser.startup.homepage", "data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://start.fedoraproject.org/"); pref("browser.newtabpage.pinned", '[{"url":"https://start.fedoraproject.org/","title":"Fedora Project - Start Page"}]'); so looks like the browser.startup.homepage data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://start.fedoraproject.org/ is set after update. But we set that in Firefox internally and user settings from user profile should have higher priority. If you look at about:config, is the 'browser.startup.homepage' key printed as bold when contains your values (about:home)? If it's bold it means user defined value and should be kept. If it's printed by regular font it's default value and it's supposed to be overwritten by update.
Yes, it's bold. Bold w/ reset button (indicating it's overriding a default value) browser.startup.homepage Bold w/ trash button (I belive indicates this is a user-defined but not an override) browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone browser.startup.homepage_override.once extensions.lastpass.showHomepageAfterLogin
I just tried reinstalling, downgrading, and downgrading and then upgrading firefox, but was unable to reproduce this bug. I wonder if it has something to do with the sync process itself? I sync with a Windows computer, and have with a Mac computer in the past, FWIW.
I also can't reproduce it on fresh profiles: * Downgraded to firefox-93.0-2.fc35.x86_64.rpm * Created two new profiles (HP1 & HP2) * Set up a new sync account with them * Changed homepage to "Firefox Home (Default)" in HP1, HP2 sync'd that setting * Upgraded to firefox-94.0-1.fc35.x86_64.rpm * Neither profile has homepage reset It may be something either in my firefox local profile (on both firefox computers, possibly synced) or something in my Sync account online (I have used sync since it was called Weave >10 years ago). That said, I regularly use two firefox profiles, both were affected by this issue. While my primary one is old, the other was just created last year and not heavily customized beyond start page, search engine, and bookmarks. Is there any information I can gather before/during/after the next firefox upgrade (95) in a few weeks in case the same happens again?
*** Bug 2025120 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I can confirm this issue. It seems to happen when you have firefox synced with non-fedora-systems. I have several Windows 10/11 and Ubuntus as well as Android synced with my fedora-firefox. The not-fedora ones are unsetting the user pref `browser.startup.homepage` when set to `about:home`. This unset gets synced and fedora falls back to `data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://start.fedoraproject.org/`. I worked around this behaviour through resetting the fedora-adjustment using autoconfig with echo -e '// IMPORTANT: Start your code on the 2nd line\ndefaultPref("browser.startup.homepage", "about:home");' | sudo tee /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox.cfg echo -e 'pref("general.config.filename", "firefox.cfg");\npref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);' | sudo tee /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/pref/autoconfig.js # restart all firefox-instances (see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-autoconfig) You can also reset the other two prefs, but I'm fine with them.
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 36 development cycle. Changing version to 36.
I just had this happen for the first time in a while. I browsed to the Youtube homepage and a couple of parts of the DOM didn't load. The browser crashed shortly after. When I opened it again, the homepage was reset to start.fedoraproject.org. Also, it might be worth merging bug 1968194 into this one. That one is older, but this one has more activity.
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I can confirm this is still an issue with Fedora 37.
Confirming this is still an issue on Fedoras 39 and 40 (branched). I believe the issue stems from this line in the build of Firefox for Fedora: https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/firefox/blob/rawhide/f/firefox-redhat-default-prefs.js#_18 Would it be possible to move setting this preference into a script which only runs on install and not on upgrade? I do believe there is an advantage to showing first-time users the Fedora homepage, but continuously overriding users' homepage is not desired behavior.
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Still an issue on F40 for me too.
Hey, I was looking into why this issue may be happening, and it seems like it may be due to some weird interaction with Firefox sync on Firefox and Windows.. I was able to reproduce with the following steps: 1. Install Fedora, create new Firefox Sync account 2. Log into Firefox Sync, making sure it's synced to "Firefox Home (default)" 3. Install Windows, install Firefox on Windows, sign in to Firefox sync 4. Update Firefox on Fedora, launch it and observe homepage Although when I tried downgrading Firefox on Fedora and upgrading it again, it wasn't overwritten again.. I also set up a RHEL vm and signed into the Firefox sync account before setting up the Windows box, but I couldn't reproduce the bug with that one For anyone reading this thread: I'm curious to know what kind of devices you have synced to FF Sync: for me I experience this issue on my personal Fedora and Windows box I have a gut feeling that disabling homepage syncing on the firefox-redhat-default-prefs.js file could solve it :p
See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2020436#c16 for a workaround ;-) I'm using it since years and it works flawlessly
I've thought of another workaround: I set my home page to about:home# (so that it's no longer set to the default option) and it just survived one Firefox update
Thanks for the investigation here!
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There are workarounds but this is still an issue.
I think the only long-term solution to this bug would be to remove the custom homepage. FWIW, I just installed Ubuntu 24.10 to test, and they no longer override their homepage to start.ubuntu.com.
I would agree that the custom homepage should be removed. It's unfortunate since the Fedora Homepage provides great information on the distro, but I think the user experience is degraded too much when this bug is encountered.
Is there anything that prevents the root cause from being addressed? Comment 21 already seems to have identified the cause. It's fine if this is the default home page after installation, but the user's preference shouldn't be overwritten on upgrade.
As per #25: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2020436#c16
+1 to removing the custom homepage override. My concern is that new users (including myself) might be turned off by this frustrating behavior and change browsers because of this. It's a thing of the past to change default homepage and shouldn't be done in 2025. Therefore I would be happy to see dropping start.fedoraproject.org as the default homepage.
I wonder if these two can make the difference: pref("services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.newtabpage.enabled", true); pref("services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.newtabpage.pinned", true); Is my understanding correct that the homepage overwrite happens with Sync enabled only?
(In reply to Martin Stransky from comment #36) > Is my understanding correct that the homepage overwrite happens with Sync > enabled only? Correct. And you need to have at least one non-fedora desktop-firefox with settings-sync enabled.
I don't use firefox sync at all and have this bug on a very recent fedora 42 to 43 upgrade.
(In reply to chlfin from comment #38) > I don't use firefox sync at all and have this bug on a very recent fedora 42 > to 43 upgrade. Would love to fix that but frankly I have no idea how. I also don't see that on my box without sync.
(In reply to Martin Stransky from comment #39) > Would love to fix that but frankly I have no idea how. Removing the pref override in the patchfile [1] would resolve this issue but also disable the fedora startpage. I have the same opinion as Jonas from comment #35. Maybe there is a way to set the startpage when a new ff profile gets created on first start. But like a manual setting instead of the current way by overriding the installations default. [1] https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/firefox/blob/f535a87d9777c1a8ccfa381993e30511ae1bdb25/f/firefox-redhat-default-prefs.js#_17
It seems users are getting angry and there's a false story going around that this is intentional behavior in the RPM (i.e. that Fedora packaging is intentionally resetting the homepage on every update). https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1s8jevj/a_message_to_fedora_devs_please_stop_interfering/ I think this really needs to be looked at. It's too opaque to users, it happens to some and not others, and it *feels* like a Microsoft-esque "reset default browser to Edge on every update" kind of user-hostile pattern even when it isn't intentional.
I have to agree. The Fedora start page is a great resource and deserves attention, but the current behavior of overriding the users startpage causes too much friction. If a better solution can not be found (after 5 years, it seems a better one does not exist!), the custom homepage should be removed.
In my opinion a homepage is a personal thing, and people set it to whatever they like. Slapping a OS startpage into the users face is clearly not an ideal thing to do. A Hello App like one comes with cachyOS or manjaro will be a better route to give information and resources to the user regarding Fedora (comment #42). I think removing it completely will be the right step.
The issue seems to not just be the home page (that's just the most visible one and the one that users blame on Fedora). Fedora overrides multiple default prefs for legitimate, important reasons, and those are not something that can just be removed without causing important behavior differences. I have filed this upstream here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2028331
There's some discussion upstream of possible ways to fix this, though I think a proper fix involves changes upstream, not just in Fedora. Meanwhile, the idea of splitting off the homepage preset into a subpackage has come up. I think that might be worth doing. It does not solve the "home page gets reset" bug, but: - It would allow users to uninstall the subpackage to ensure fresh browser profiles and log-in users don't have the Fedora defaults; and - It allows those affected by this bug, whether the Firefox Sync related issue or some other unknown issue with browser pref resets, to at least have a workaround. @stransky I would be happy to send a spec PR for this (split off homepage prefs into a different .js file, move it to a subpackage, Recommends: it from main package) if you want.
(In reply to Hoshino Lina from comment #45) > @stransky I would be happy to send a spec PR for this (split off > homepage prefs into a different .js file, move it to a subpackage, > Recommends: it from main package) if you want. Sure, no problem with that. Please go ahead.
Please post the patch directly here - from unknown reason I'm not getting mail notifications for merge requests.
I'm going to hold off on this for a bit until I collect more information. There are multiple users reporting *different* issues, and the whole thing is a mess. If I may, I'm going to "declare" this bug as specifically about the Firefox Sync + homepage reset from Firefox Home issue (the one I filed upstream above). I've opened bug 2455031 to track the overall issues and collect user feedback to try to track down more general loss of preference issues.
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Clearly still occuring.
It didn't happen to me when I upgraded to v150. I'm using the Firefox Sync feature, so it's possible that the browser is now forcing my preference over Fedora's?
Now I'm sure it has nothing to do with Firefox Sync. I have a few other users in this Fedora installation that don't have Sync enabled, and still my home page preference was preserved in all of them. Did anyone test it after upgrading to v150?
This has been randomly happening for years and still happens on Fedora 44. Please stop changing user preferences on updates.