This is the most frustrating tech problem i've faced in a while. There are various solutions for various versions of Firefox, but none of them seem to work anymore because apparently Mozilla is waging a silent battle against people who want control over their own new tab page. For some reason.
Sorry. Just frustrated.
I'm making an HTML page that i would like LibreWolf to load by default every time i open a new blank tab with ctrl+t or the new tab button. I'm aware that i can set a new window page in my settings (not what i'm talking about), and i'm also aware of the browser extension that allows you to set a new tab page but is real buggy about local files. I'm even aware that i could hypothetically set my new tab page to a hidden page on my website that redirects to a local file, and i'm aware that that won't work because links from HTTP(S) to File are disabled.
I have tried following the following guides and solutions.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/c8z0hx/help_set_new_tab_page_to_local_file/
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1251199
- https://github.com/n6v26r/.dotfiles/blob/main/firefox.md
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1498059
- https://superuser.com/questions/471713/set-the-new-tab-page-in-firefox
- https://www.reddit.com/r/startpages/comments/g3qndt/psa_how_to_set_a_custom_new_tab_page_in_firefox/
- https://codeberg.org/librewolf/issues/issues/1864#issuecomment-12463542
- https://codeberg.org/librewolf/issues/issues/2313
- https://gitlab.com/fazzi/nixohess/-/blob/main/home/modules/apps/browsers/librewolf/default.nix?ref_type=heads#L49
As you might guess, none of them worked.
Here's my current setup with this stuff.
I'm running GNU/Linux Debian 13 (trixie) with the KDE Plasma desktop environment version 6.3.6, KDE Frameworks version 6.13.0, and Qt version 6..8.2. But i doubt any of that matters.
LibreWolf was installed via apt and extrepo, and is on version 153.0.4-1.
I have a file at /usr/share/librewolf/defaults/pref/autoconfig.js:
//
pref("general.config.filename", "autoconfig.cfg");
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.sandbox_enabled", false);
I have a file /usr/share/librewolf/autoconfig.cfg:
// sets the new tab page to out local newtab.
ChromeUtils.importESModule("resource:///modules/AboutNewTab.sys.mjs").AboutNewTab.newTabURL = "file:///home/indigo/Documents/browser-home/browserhome.html";
A copy of that same file is at /home/indigo/.config/librewolf/librewolf/librewolf.overrides.cfg
None of this seems to be doing anything at all. Maybe LibreWolf handles some of these file paths differently from Firefox, and that's why no guides work. I don't know.
Does anyone know a way to do this that works in version 153.0.4-1? Right now it seems like my best options are to stick with a blank page, switch to a Chromium-based browser like Vivaldi that actually lets me do this, or use New Tab Override to load this page from my website and potentially re-download a couple megabytes of images every time i open a tab. I don't like any of those options.
So, again, does a solution currently exist, or has Mozilla won the war against customized home pages for new tabs? Does one of these still work and i just did it wrong? Will LibreWolf figure out that people want this and find a good way to implement it as a normal setting that doesn't require a CS degree?
From my understanding after looking into this, you should only need to point the new tab URL to your local file using the file:// protocol via:
user_pref("browser.newtab.url", "file:///home/username/path/to/page.html");
Yet, any CSS, JavaScript, and images must be on your local disk as well and referenced using the absolute paths or the relative paths from the HTML file's location. If you still run into issues following these steps, it's probably the Content Security Policy blocking the scripts or external resources of your local HTML file. Before setting it as the permanent new tab, try testing the file manually first with:
file:///home/youruser/path/to/page.html
Also, be sure all the styles and scripts load correctly, then apply the config method resulting in a successful test.
Where would that piece of code go? One of the three configuration files i mentioned, or somewhere else?
These preference go in the "user.js" file inside the profile directory, should be found in about:support by searching for the Profile Directory/Folder. It's probably something like:
~/.librewolf/< random-string >.default/
Youou need to create/edit the user.js file, here's the command:
nano ~/.librewolf//user.js
Then add the line:
user_pref("browser.newtab.url", "file:///home/username/path/to/page.html");
After this, save and restart the browser. There's a chance this just won't work as browser.newtab.url was removed ~ FireFox 40. It was replaced with an extension-based API, so ya, this might not work in modern LibreWolf... But it's worth a try. Otherwise, an extension like New Tab Override should let you set a file:// path for new tabs. It hooks into the browser.newtab API that replaced these older preferences, but I know you haven't any much luck either way.
Didn't work, but thanks anyway.