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?
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.