215924 - Search button defaults back to Netscape search engine

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: Search, defect)

Description

[S.A. Birl]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624

I have a PGPdisk which houses my Mozilla profile; my version of a roaming profile.
In my prefs, my default search engine is set for Google.
Whenever I move my profile (via ZIP disk) to another computer and click on the
"Search" button, the Netscape search engine always appears.  Double-checking
my prefs, it's set back to Netscape.
After "resetting" it back to Google, it works fine for that computer.
Move the profile (folder and all files) to another computer, back to Netscape.

Wondering if it's a registry setting?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create profile on a removeable disk
2. Set up search preferences on 1st computer
3. Close browser and move disk to another computer
4. Try search again.
Actual Results:  
My prefered search engine goes from Google back Netscape

Expected Results:  
Stayed with Google.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This can happen if you use different Mozilla versions with that profile.
Is this true ?

Comment 2

[S.A. Birl]

Maybe?
I wouldnt know since I always used the same version of Mozilla with the same
profile.

Comment 3

[Kai de Leeuw]

dupe of bug 206464?

Comment 4

[Matus UHLAR - fantomas]

I don't thing that's dupe of bug 206464, unless it means exactly the same as
search preferences. However this seems to me as dupe of bug 208894. 

Comment 5

[S.A. Birl]

Similar to bug 208894, but not.
We're not talking about an upgrade of Mozilla.  See my 2nd post where I
stated it's the same version of Mozilla.

1) Mozilla 1.4 is installed on Computer A.
2) Profile is created on a PGP-disk on a 100 MB ZIP disk.
   a) Profile is setup to use Google as default search engine.
3) Close PGP-disk.  Remove ZIP disk.
4) Mozilla 1.4 is installed on Computer B.
5) Insert ZIP disk, mount PGP-disk (same volume letter as Computer A)
6) Create a profile on Mozilla (computer B) to look at PGP-disk
7) Press the SEARCH button ..... and get Netscape instead of Google.


Definitely not a dupe of bug 206464

Comment 6

[Andreas Kunz]

Birl: I think the point is that the Mozilla application directory is different
on the different computers.
Whether this happens because of an upgrade or the move to a different computer,
does not matter.

The problem is that the search engine is saved in the preferences as an absolute
path to your Mozilla application directory (see the pref
"browser.search.defaultengine" after entering "about:config" in your URLbar).

Maybe you could test this assumption by ensuring that Mozilla is called in
exactly the same directory (even capitalization seems to matter!) on two
different computers and then looking if Mozilla still forgets your search engine.

Further reading: bug 205708 comment #16, and bug 212207 comment #11 and 12.

Comment 7

[S.A. Birl]

Good theory; tested that long ago; failure.

My prefs.js file is manually coded with the following.

user_pref("browser.search.defaultengine",
"engine://N%3A%5Csbirl%5Csearchplugins%5Cgoogle.src");

I even went so far as to put that code in the read-only user.js file.  No dice.
The N:\ drive is consistant on every computer as it is the location of the 
PGPdisk when mounted.  Search engine has been known to default back to Netscape.


First, my comment on bug 212207 comment #12:
I did go so far as to copy the searchprofile directory from the application
folder into the profile directory.
The Mozilla binary, was not copied into the profile directory.  I see no point
in having more than 1 binary on the computer.


I think I can understand what you are refering to in bug 205708 comment #16.
But my question is this:  Wouldnt "engine:///" merely be a shorthand for a 
absolute path name?  I would assume that "engine:///" would have to point to 
somewhere tangible on the hard drive in order to read/execute google.src
AFAIK, "engine:///" is not defined in the preferences, therefore each
installation of Mozilla would have to know where "engine:///" points to.


My comment on bug 212207 comment #11:
"there seems to be a different problem that makes always appear the topmost
search entry in the list when the search engine has not been explicitly set
with the version of Mozilla being used"

But the serach engine *is* explicitly set, even before I changed it to point
to the N:\ drive.  Unless of course  "explicitly set"  means the search engine
points to a physical location on the hard drive, then the original preference
using "engine:///" was not explicitly set.


Please correct me if Im misunderstanding something.  Thanks.

Comment 8

[Andreas Kunz]

S.A. Birl:
> Wouldnt "engine:///" merely be a shorthand for a absolute path name? 

No this is a kind of protocol descriptor, the absolute path follows afterwards.

This looks very much like bug 187293...
Could you please:
1) provoke the situation this bug is about (i.e. make it so the search engine
reverts to Netscape or whatever)
2) type "about:config" into your location bar
3) find the pref "browser.search.defaultengine" (e.g. type "search.default" into
the filter field to find it easier)
4) right-click on that pref and "Copy Value" and paste it into this bug
5) set your search engine to be Google
6) repeat steps 2)-4)
7) Submit bug comment ;-)

Thanks!

Comment 9

[benc]

NEW:
S.A.: Andreas is right.

Your engine: URL is not going to work, you would need, at minimum, 3 slashes.

Comment 10

[S.A. Birl]

(In reply to comment #8)
> S.A. Birl:
> > Wouldnt "engine:///" merely be a shorthand for a absolute path name? 
> 
> No this is a kind of protocol descriptor, the absolute path follows afterwards.


Got it.


> This looks very much like bug 187293...


Similar but not the same as bug 187293
That bug says it lasts for the current session.
This *was* not a session issue.
It was a profile issue.

I say *was* because since version 1.6 this no longer seems to be an issue.
Im running 1.7 now

If, by chance, this occurs again, then maybe I'll attempt to reproduce it
using the steps in Comment #8.

In the meantime, I will change the resolution to FIXED.

Thanks.

Comment 11

[Jason Bassford]

No fix specified.

->WORKSFORME