The google.xml file (/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins/google.xml) is overwritten when firefox is updated by portage. I edited this file to use google.nl and not google.com as my default search engine in the search-bar. It would be helpful if this file was a part of the config-file management system and one could use the etc-update of cfg-update utilities. Or maybe there is another and even better way (like putting it in the users home directory?). Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. start firefox 2. use the google-search field in the address bar to search something 3. notice that it defaults to google.com 4. change this in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins/google.xml 5. update firefox 6. notice that the changes made in point 4 are overwritten I think this may be an issue for all expats and some other people, because google.com uses the IP address to do a country-specific search, which is not always what one wants. In my case, I like google.nl as a default because it shows both English and Dutch results, while google.com shows only French results from google.fr because it knows where I live. I think it is only logical that the field is customizable, and therefore the customization should not be overwritten.
Can't this be altered via some file under user home?
(In reply to comment #1) > Can't this be altered via some file under user home? That would be nice, but an extensive google search only shows results of people that modify google.xml like me. I also tried a # grep -i google `find . -name \* | grep -v Cache` to see if there is anything "google" in my ~/.mozilla/firefox, without useful results.
After some more searching I think I probably should copy the changed file to ~/.mozilla/firefox/xq5oyrsn.default/searchplugins/ and use this as a new search plugin. That seems to work. Maybe this bug should now be labelled invalid? It would be nice though if the LINGUAS options would also affect the search engine... but that's probably too much to ask. Thank you for your reply.
(In reply to comment #0) > The google.xml file (/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins/google.xml) is > overwritten when firefox is updated by portage. I edited this file to use > google.nl and not google.com as my default search engine in the search-bar. It > would be helpful if this file was a part of the config-file management system > and one could use the etc-update of cfg-update utilities. You can add paths to CONFIG_PROTECT. Create a file /etc/env.d/99mysettings (name it whatever you like), set CONFIG_PROTECT="/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins", run env-update, re-source /etc/profile in active shells, and next update portage should treat it the same as files in /env. If you have problems, you can ask on the forums for details. (In reply to comment #3) > After some more searching I think I probably should copy the changed file to > ~/.mozilla/firefox/xq5oyrsn.default/searchplugins/ > and use this as a new search plugin. That seems to work. Maybe this bug should > now be labelled invalid? Probably so, yeah. > It would be nice though if the LINGUAS options would also affect the search > engine... but that's probably too much to ask. LINGUAS is meant for translations, not other forms of localisation. Besides, something like this probably should include an option to use a different search engine as well, and not be limited to a language for Google. If you have a decent and implementable suggestion for this though, feel free to describe it and re-open this bug.
