GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 324392
Cannot specify home dir as save dir in Firefox/Deer Park
Last modified: 2005-12-26 15:07:45 UTC
I don't have a desktop and I'd like to save files in my home folder /home/chris rather than in /home/chris/Desktop. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Select Edit -> Preferences. 2. On the Downloads tab check the Save all files to this folder radio button. 3. Click Browse.... 4. Double-click File System in the left hand pane. 5. Double-click the home directory. 6. Select your home directory and click Open. Actual Results: The folder gets set to /home/chris/Desktop (which appears as simply 'Desktop'). Expected Results: The save directory should have been set to /home/chris instead. Desktop is not the first folder to appear alphabetically in /home/chris. Other information: I'm running Firefox 1.5-r2. I don't use the GNOME desktop (I use evilwm). I previously reported this bug on Gentoo's bugzilla <http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=115250>.
Chris, I have a question for you: are your file downloads actually saved on your 'Desktop', or are they saved in $HOME? BUG SEEMS UNIQUE TO FIREFOX (their bug, not GtkFileChooser). I also experience this problem with my Firefox 1.6a1 (nightly Trunk Build). I attempted workarounds such as: going to the filesystem, choosing a different root dir ("/mnt"), then going back and choosing "/home", and only then selecting my $HOME. Same result Chris had, my selection was magically changed to "Desktop" on the Firefox GUI. Nasty! But, what in fact happens when I save a file is: Firefox saves it to my $HOME. It does not attempt to save it to my KDE "Desktop". And, when I tried another program (I went into GIMP Preferences), I was able to set my Temp Folder (and my Swap Folder) to $HOME with no problem at all, using exactly Chris' procedure. My GIMP isn't the latest/greatest Release, but I think the bug(s) are in Firefox: 1) because for me, Firefox is saving to $HOME while showing "Desktop" in its GUI, and (more important) 2) because GIMP easily handles selection of $HOME (and Display of the selected Folder) as the 'Temp' folder or 'Swap' folder. So GtkFileChooser seems to be working great and passing the selected "/home/myself" Directory name to the Caller with no problems.
If I actually choose "Desktop" as the Directory I want within my $HOME, Firefox changes it's display to show: "/home/myself/Desktop". And, if I download a file, it now gets saved and shown on my KDE "Desktop"! So this is definitely a Firefox bug: Their GUI shows "Desktop" when I have selected $HOME as my Download Directory, even though the GTKFileChooser returned $HOME correctly and Firefox is going to save downloads to $HOME. Please advise if your experience (Firefox on evilwm) is NOT the same as mine (Firefox on KDE). If you ARE getting the same results as I did, then please (1) put a note in here that the bug is Firefox, and this one should be 'RESOLVED' as 'NOTGNOME'. And (2) Open it as a Firefox bug, http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ with Product=Firefox and Component=Preferences. Thanks in advance, either way!
> Chris, I have a question for you: are your file downloads actually saved on > your 'Desktop', or are they saved in $HOME? Stuff I download gets saved in Desktop. Also, typing /home/$HOME into the box that control+L brings up doesn't do the trick either. I suppose you guys can mark this invalid and I'll take the bug on over to the Mozilla folks.
Christopher, you won't have to open a new bug with Firefox... they've already got one, <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=264512"># 264512</a>. I think that you can work around the download to $HOME/Desktop by hand-editing your 'prefs.js' file (in the root of your profile). You have to do this while Firefox is *NOT* running, because Firefox overwrites it upon exit. Change these 3 prefs, thus: user_pref("browser.download.dir", "/home/chris"); user_pref("browser.download.downloadDir", "/home/chris"); user_pref("browser.download.lastDir", "/home/chris"); Your "preferences" GUI will still show "Desktop", but your download files be saved in your $HOME. The Firefox GUI is fsck'd. Resolution of this Bug should should definitely be 'NOTGNOME'. so that they all readwhF