How to add a search engine? Topic is solved

[Moonchild]

Brave is not included with Pale Moon, nor is Mojeek nor MetaGer but they work as defaults after they are added as search plugins.

Of course, if you select them.
OP hasn't said they installed Google, or that they at one point set that as default.

[PaleLuc]

OP hasn't said they installed Google, or that they at one point set that as default.

I never installed Google, it's just been there since forever. I mean, I can't remember how long I've been using Palemoon. It's been many years.

So I actually used Google for some time then decided not to use it anymore so I would use a single letter shortcut in Pentadactyl to search elsewhere. For example, "y word" will look for "word" on Yandex. But bare word queries were still sent to Google and I wanted to change that. A completely Google-free experience.

I hate Google, in case I haven't mentioned it.

My problem is mostly solved now. I added this line to my .pentadactylrc file:

set defsearch=e

Now I don't even have to use 'e' anymore, all queries are sent to Etsi.

But that is thanks to Pentadactyl. When I open about:config and browser.search.defaultenginename, "Google" is still there.

So I still hate Google, now more than ever, but at least as long as I have Pentadactyl I don't have to worry about it. I would love to find out why it won't go away, but it seems that is very difficult.

[Raava]

I never installed Google, it's just been there since forever. I mean, I can't remember how long I've been using Palemoon. It's been many years.

So I actually used Google for some time then decided not to use it anymore so I would use a single letter shortcut in Pentadactyl to search elsewhere.
[…]
So I still hate Google, now more than ever, but at least as long as I have Pentadactyl I don't have to worry about it. I would love to find out why it won't go away, but it seems that is very difficult.

Could it be you use an old Palemoon profile that by now might have been used for years?

Can you do the following: (Save this post in a text format so that you can look it up in between exiting PM and starting PM anew without the need to find this very post on the internet anew each time)

Exit all instances of Palemoon.
After doing that, make sure every palemoon instance is really exited by using this command

Code: Select all

killall palemoon

in a terminal.
That command should have said this

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rava@rava1:~$ killall palemoon
palemoon: no process found
rava@rava1:~$ 

Now make a backup of your profile folder:
Go as the user that starts Palemoon (I hope you not use Palemoon as user root! I also hope you use a strong password for your root account.) into ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/ and copy your RANDOM.default folder to a new folder e.g. 2023-11-05-backup.default including all sub-folders and files in it. The RANDOM in RANDOM.default is some random numbers&characters and you find the same folder name mentioned in your ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/profiles.ini

Now that you have a backup, delete everything in your ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/RANDOM.default/ folder - all files, all sub-folders.

Start Palemoon anew. Your ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/RANDOM.default/ will be populated with brand new files. If Google search is gone, then something was off with your profile.
Make a new backup of your new profile.

Use the new profile and install your add-ons, and best make a new unique backup of your profile folder. I would keep the 1st profile backup version without any add-ons, since that is the most clean profile, and when testing one add-on after the other, and the newest addition works well as do all the other already installed, I would overwrite the most recent backup with the current profile (but still keep the initial backup as mentioned above untouched) and again exit palemoon (it doesn't hurt to every time ask the system if PM is really exited by doing the killall palemoon each time in between adding one add-on each time.)


But when even with a fresh profile, and without any add-ons, the Göögle search still gives you issues, then it must be part of your system wide Palemoon installation. Unless it is something much more sinister like part of a rootkit, but we will not start all this expecting the worst kind of scenario. Is it your own PC? Are you also the administrator (=root) ? Do you have the root password?

If so, start a root terminal and do the following as user root (but the testing of PM later on as the normal non-root user, just like you did above)
I would move the original existing Palemoon install somewhere else and create a fresh Palemoon install by extracting the official compressed tar file.
On many Linux distributions your palemoon install is put into /opt/palemoon/ but that might vary for your Linux.

Usually you can see where the PM installation sits in your Linux system by these two commands in any terminal: type and file.

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root@rava1:~# type palemoon
palemoon is /usr/bin/palemoon
root@rava1:~# file /usr/bin/palemoon
/usr/bin/palemoon: symbolic link to /opt/palemoon/palemoon
root@rava1:~# 

In my case, PM is installed into /opt/palemoon/ and the PM binary is /opt/palemoon/palemoon

[moonbat]

He's already found a solution for the problem, no need to overly complicate things.

[Raava]

He's already found a solution for the problem, no need to overly complicate things.

He wrote:

I would love to find out why it won't go away, but it seems that is very difficult.

I just give him the opportunity to figure out why it happens, as he is interested in knowing that.
Indeed, is is a bit complex, but doable, now it's up to him if he really want to find the reason - or not.

[gepus]

Indeed, is is a bit complex, but doable, ...

IMO, your instructions are like teaching someone to scratch his ears with his legs.

[Raava]

IMO, your instructions are like teaching someone to scratch his ears with his legs.

When you have a HOWTO that does accomplish the same but is much more easy with less steps and less complexity - do tell us.

[Goodydino]

If you dislike any search plugin you can easily remove it from the list in the searchbar. Just pull down the list and click "Manage Search Engines". From there you can delete it.

[Kruppt]

<snip>

So I still hate Google, now more than ever, but at least as long as I have Pentadactyl I don't have to worry about it. I would love to find out why it won't go away, but it seems that is very difficult.

If you do not plan on using Google search you could delete the Google .xml files from the searchpulgins sub-directories.
I am not familiar with this Pentadactyl extension, but I have a searchbar and the engines can be managed via the searchbar.
Click on the far left icon on searchbar then click on 'Manage Search Engines' from the drop down menu located at the bottom of menu.

[Basilisk-Dev]

Off-topic:
I feel like naming something etsi, which in English would be pronounced exactly the same as Etsy, is probably a bad move of the people who run etsi. It's like making a store for walls and calling it Wall Mart.

[illiad]

If you dislike any search plugin you can easily remove it from the list in the searchbar. Just pull down the list and click "Manage Search Engines". From there you can delete it.

It seems there is more than one file that PM **auto repairs* on restart... so about config and text editing may not properly work...

In case anyone has 'lost' the search bar (or confused - many use the ' location bar' not just for typing web addresses, but for searching.. )

if you have 'tidied up' your interface, then moving the search bar to an odd location can make it disappear..
right-click on a tab or button reveals ' customize' - the search button is revealed, and can be moved to a better place - and remember to click 'done' !!

[Goodydino]

I did move the search bar to an extra toolbar that I added. It is still there. I have not seen Pale Moon "auto repair" any of the search engines that I removed, and I removed all but Wikipedia and added several that I wanted instead. In about:config, I set browser.search.update to false. Maybe that is why none of the removals have come back?
If the search bar seems to disappear, it is in the customize window.

[dapgo]

Personally I use this:

https://addons.palemoon.org/addon/add-as-search-engine/

"Add as Search Engine allows to add any search on any page to the Search Bar. It doesn't need browser restart upon installing.This add-on is forked from Add to Search Bar Firefox extension."

the addon description is not descriptive enough.

Is this addon an alternative for the default "Add to" search engine that also don't need a restart after adding an engine.

Can it detect more search forms than the default function in my screenshot?

search_engine.png

I remember the good times of https://mycroftproject.com when it was receiving continuous engines/updates and feeback from users. Unfortunately now many engines are not updated and they will fail

[Kruppt]

With the "Add As Search Engine" addon/extension you can add a search from any search box
or search engine page. For example right clicking in the search box on this forum , then clicking on "Add To Search Bar"
in the right click menu will add a search for this forum, or if you right click in the search box on the Pale Moon
Extension page and clicked on "Add To Search Bar" on the right click menu it will add a search for Pale Moon addons.
Also you can click on the icon on the far left of the search bar and the option to add search engine will appear at the
bottom of the drop down menu when on a search engine page etc.

[billmcct]

Personally I use this:

https://addons.palemoon.org/addon/add-as-search-engine/

"Add as Search Engine allows to add any search on any page to the Search Bar. It doesn't need browser restart upon installing.This add-on is forked from Add to Search Bar Firefox extension."

the addon description is not descriptive enough.

Is this addon an alternative for the default "Add to" search engine that also don't need a restart after adding an engine.

Can it detect more search forms than the default function in my screenshot?
search_engine.png


I remember the good times of https://mycroftproject.com when it was receiving continuous engines/updates and feeback from users. Unfortunately now many engines are not updated and they will fail

Yes it is an alternative to default.
On any page with a search box, right click in the search box and select "Add as Search Engine".
No restart needed.