288687 - Mozilla won't load my designated home page.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[Tom Carissimi]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050319
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050319

I downloaded Mozilla 1.7.6 on both my home and work machines, uninstalled the
previous version, and installed.  No problems on my home machine (XP Home).  On
my work machine (XP Profressional) no matter how many times I launch Mozilla,
the browser opens to the Mozilla page, instead of my designated home page
(www.refdesk.com).  About:config shows that there was a value for
browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone which was taking me back to the Mozilla
home page.  I've played around with this setting, changing it to Bolean and
False, but the override still takes place.  I uninstalled and reinstalled
1.7.6., and still the browser opens to the Mozilla page.  Yet, if I click on
Home, I get taken directly to refdesk.com.  

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Shutdown Mozilla
2.Startup Mozilla
3.

Actual Results:  
Browser opened on Mozilla.org

Expected Results:  
Opened at www.refdesk.com

Comment 1

[OstGote!]

Set the following pref with about:config

browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone to string "ignore"
browser.startup.homepage_override.1 to boolean "false"

Does this help?

Comment 2

[u63580]

Have you tried a new profile?

Comment 3

[Hermann Schwab]

do you have write permissions to that profile directory?
Do the changes you are making in about:config persist, or are they gone next
time you start Mozilla?

Comment 4

[Tom Carissimi]

-- (In reply to comment #1)
> Set the following pref with about:config
> 
> browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone to string "ignore"
> browser.startup.homepage_override.1 to boolean "false"
> 
> Does this help?

It did help, but not directly.  I couldn't change the value for 
.*override.mstone* from boolean to string.  Or at least, I couldn't 
figure out how to do it.

So I downloaded 1.7.6 installer again, and uninstalled my existing 
version from Control Panel.  I did a fresh install of 1.7.6, and when I 
went to about:config, *override.mstone* was a string value.  I was then 
able to change the string for *override.mstone* to ignore.  I shut down 
Mozilla and restarted it, and it opened back on my designated home page.

My thanks to all who contributed. This is my first submission to 
Bugzilla, so I have no idea how to close this.  Do I simply Resolve Bug,
changing resolution to FIXED.

Comment 5

[Hermann Schwab]

(In reply to comment #4)

> > browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone to string "ignore"
> > browser.startup.homepage_override.1 to boolean "false"
> > 
> > Does this help?
> 
> It did help, but not directly.  I couldn't change the value for 
> .*override.mstone* from boolean to string.  Or at least, I couldn't 
> figure out how to do it.
...
> I did a fresh install of 1.7.6, and when I 
> went to about:config, *override.mstone* was a string value.  I was then 
> able to change the string for *override.mstone* to ignore.  I shut down 
> Mozilla and restarted it, and it opened back on my designated home page.
> 
> My thanks to all who contributed. This is my first submission to 
> Bugzilla, so I have no idea how to close this.  Do I simply Resolve Bug,
> changing resolution to FIXED.

Resolution FIXED is for bugs where something had to be changed in Mozilla to fix
it, and if you don´t know, if something has changed, or where it had changed,
resolution will be WORKSFORME.  
imho, believing your well written description, there was abug that your pref
wasn´t string but boolean.
For me it is unclear whether you created that pref with wrong type, or Mozilla
created it in an older version ( Nightly? or Release?)
I know, but don´t know if that is still valid, I could create a preference
having wrong type and couldn´t change it using about:config.
I had to edit prefs.js

Comment 6

[Tom Carissimi]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> 
> > > browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone to string "ignore"
> > > browser.startup.homepage_override.1 to boolean "false"
> > > 
> > > Does this help?
> > 
> > It did help, but not directly.  I couldn't change the value for 
> > .*override.mstone* from boolean to string.  Or at least, I couldn't 
> > figure out how to do it.
> ...
> > I did a fresh install of 1.7.6, and when I 
> > went to about:config, *override.mstone* was a string value.  I was then 
> > able to change the string for *override.mstone* to ignore.  I shut down 
> > Mozilla and restarted it, and it opened back on my designated home page.
> > 
> > My thanks to all who contributed. This is my first submission to 
> > Bugzilla, so I have no idea how to close this.  Do I simply Resolve Bug,
> > changing resolution to FIXED.
> 
> Resolution FIXED is for bugs where something had to be changed in Mozilla to fix
> it, and if you don´t know, if something has changed, or where it had changed,
> resolution will be WORKSFORME.  

Thanks.  I'll re-open the bug and change it to WORKSFORME.

> imho, believing your well written description, there was a bug that your pref
> wasn´t string but boolean.
> For me it is unclear whether you created that pref with wrong type, or Mozilla
> created it in an older version ( Nightly? or Release?)

Mea culpa.  I changed it Friday afternoon, in an attempt to resolve the problem.
 I couldn't change it back.

> I know, but don´t know if that is still valid, I could create a preference
> having wrong type and couldn´t change it using about:config.
> I had to edit prefs.js

I was mucking around in user.js, and it seems that the only way to get the prefs
file in a state that I could change the value to the settings that
[e-mail] provided was to uninstall and reinstall.   

Comment 7

[Hermann Schwab]

(In reply to comment #6)

> > > > browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone to string "ignore"
> > > > browser.startup.homepage_override.1 to boolean "false"
> 
> I was mucking around in user.js, and it seems that the only way to get the prefs
> file in a state that I could change the value to the settings that
> [e-mail] provided was to uninstall and reinstall.   

You can´t edit user.js while Mozilla is running, it is written back when you
exit Mozilla. If you want to edit user.js, you must exit Mozilla, and also stop
the Quickstart option.  I prefer using about:config, but sometimes, if you made
errors using about:config, you need to edit user.js.

Comment 8

[Tom Carissimi]

(In reply to comment #7)
> 
> You can´t edit user.js while Mozilla is running, it is written back when you
> exit Mozilla. If you want to edit user.js, you must exit Mozilla, and also stop
> the Quickstart option.  I prefer using about:config, but sometimes, if you made
> errors using about:config, you need to edit user.js.

Gaaaaaa! I knew you can't edit user.js when Mozilla is open.  I just didn't
remember it.  I'll definitely remember next time.