Current Firefox versions use the default search engine (pref: browser.search.defaultenginename) to set the search engine that is used on the about:home page.

Check the browser.search.defaultenginename pref on the about:config page.

• browser.search.defaultenginename

Currently selected search engine:

• browser.search.selectedEngine

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

I've already tried all of that, but i tried it again just in case, and the search box still doesn't even function now. I can click search and nothing happens after i changed the browser.search.defaultenginename value to DuckDuckGo.

I've gotten it to change back to google, and i can even get it to change to yahoo, but for some reason when I try to use DuckDuckGo, it just breaks the search box.

help

Do you have DuckDuckGo installed as one of the search engines for the search bar on the Navigation Toolbar?

• http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=DuckDuckGo

Yes, it's installed. Here's the xml file:

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/"> <ShortName>DuckDuckGo</ShortName> <Description>Search DuckDuckGo (SSL HTML)</Description> <InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding> <Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,*removed*</Image> <Url type="text/html" method="POST" template="https://duckduckgo.com/html/">

 <Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>

</Url> </SearchPlugin>

It must have been a problem with the search plugin.

My search plugin xml file now reads:

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>DuckDuckGo</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Search DuckDuckGo (SSL)</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,*img data removed*</os:Image>
<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://duckduckgo.com">
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
  <os:Param name="kd" value="-1"/>
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>

The search-box works now!