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Hidden Preferences

Settings your grandmother wouldn’t approve of.

Camino’s interface is designed to be simple, with easy access to the most useful options. However, you might want to live dangerously and tinker with smaller details.

This page only lists hidden preferences we think are useful to Camino users. For more esoteric hidden preferences, visit this MozillaZine Knowledge Base article, containing the most extensive list of preferences for Mozilla-based applications. Not all of the preferences listed there apply to Camino, however, and many can cause Camino to malfunction.

This page contains a list of “hidden” preferences, most of which can be activated by using the hidden “about:config” feature. To change a hidden preference, type about:config in the location bar and press return. Read the warning message, which indicates that changing hidden preferences can break Camino, and then click the I understand and wish to continue button. Finally, type part of the name of the preference in the Filter text field and double-click on the preference name to change its value.

Note: Previous versions of this page suggested you use a plain-text file called user.js to your Camino profile folder (in your home folder ~/Library/Application Support/Camino); the presence of this file will cause many preferences to be reset each time Camino is launched. If this file exists in your Camino profile folder, you should quit Camino and remove the user.js file.

Hidden Preferences

 

Disable Bookmark Icons

You can disable the display of site icons (sometimes called “favicons”) by setting the browser.chrome.favicons hidden preference to false.

Note that after setting this preference, you will also have to remove Camino’s site icon cache to prevent the display of already-stored icons. The site icon cache is located in in your home folder’s ~/Library/Caches/Camino/IconCache folder.

Tweak “single-window mode” behavior

Camino includes support for forcing links that would open in new windows to open in new tabs instead (“single-window mode”). The Links that would open new windows option in the Tabs preference pane only enables a limited portion of this feature. When activated, this feature applies to links with targets and links opened by JavaScript that do not specify changes to the new window. To adjust this behavior, change the one or more of the following hidden preferences:

To make all JavaScript links obey the single-window mode preference, even if the links specify changes to the new window, set the browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction hidden preference to 0.

The default behavior also makes pages open in a new tab instead of reusing the current tab. To adjust this behavior, set the browser.link.open_newwindow hidden preference to 1.

By default, pages opened by clicking on a link without any modifier keys, including pages that “single-window mode” opens in new tabs instead of new windows, always open in the foreground. To make pages that “single-window mode” opens in new tabs always open in background tabs instead of becoming the active tab, change the browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground hidden preference to true.

Note: Changing any of these settings from the Camino defaults may break some websites.

Disable “tab jumpback” behavior

When creating a new foreground tab via cmd-click, forcing links that would open new windows to open in new tabs, or the “Open in New Tab” context menu item, Camino will remember the launching tab such that when the new tab is closed, Camino will return to the launching tab if the user has not manually changed tabs. To disable this behavior, set the camino.enable_tabjumpback hidden preference to false.

Allow links from other applications to reuse the current tab or window

Camino only exposes two options (opening new windows or opening new tabs) for handling links sent to it from other applications, such as email clients. To have links from other applications reuse the current tab, change the browser.link.open_external hidden preference to 1.

Note: Changing this setting may cause data loss.

Tweak Find-As-You-Type

Find-As-You-Type has several settings that can be changed to adapt to your needs.

To completely disable Find-As-You-Type, set the accessibility.typeaheadfind hidden preference to false.

By default Find-As-You-Type starts only when you press / (to find text) or ' (to find links). To enable Find-As-You-Type to start finding automatically when you begin typing, set the accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart hidden preference to true.

If you want have enabled accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart but want Find-As-You-Type to search only links, change the accessibility.typeaheadfind.linksonly hidden preference to true.

When finding only links, you may want to ensure that the link starts with the entered text; to do so, set the accessibility.typeaheadfind.startlinksonly hidden preference to true.

By default Find-As-You-Type stops watching for keystrokes and times out after 3000 milliseconds; to change this time, set the accessibility.typeaheadfind.timeout hidden preference to your desired value in milliseconds.

For information about Find-As-You-Type, read its documentation.

Prevent delete from navigating to the previous page in History

Camino emulates other browsers and allows the delete key to act as the Back command when the focus is not in a text field. To make delete only delete text, set the browser.backspace_action hidden preference to 2.

Enable searching from the location bar

When you enter an incorrect URL, Camino will display an error page. However, some users prefer for Camino to search (using the default search engine) for what they incorrectly entered. This can be done by setting the keyword.enabled hidden preference to true.

To change the search engine used by this preference, modify the value of the keyword.URL preference.

You can also search from the location bar using bookmark shortcuts. For information on bookmark shortcuts, see the Bookmarks documentation.

Disable image loading

People using a dialup internet connection might not want images to load due to the costs. To stop images from loading, change the permissions.default.image hidden preference to 2.

Note that more options are available: 1, accept all images; 2, block all images; 3, block images from third party hosts.

For information about image blocking and permissions, read the MozillaZine Knowledge Base documentation.

Disable all plug-ins

Some users like to disable all plug-in content and only enable plug-ins when on a page that will not work without a plug-in. To disable all plug-ins, set the camino.enable_plugins hidden preference to false.

Note that changes to this setting will only have an effect on new windows created after making the change.

Disable specific plug-ins

Beginning in Camino 2.1, it is possible to disable only specific plug-ins, for example to keep the Flash plug-in disabled while allowing other plug-ins to function normally.

To disable a specific plug-in, first find the plug-in’s full name by choosing Installed Plug-Ins from the Help menu and looking for the name of the desired plug-in in big, bold text, e.g. “Shockwave Flash”.

Then visit about:config and set the value of the camino.disabled_plugin_names hidden preference to a unique prefix made up from the start of the plug-in name, e.g. Shockw. Additional plug-ins can be disabled by separating the prefix strings with semicolons (;).

To re-enable a plug-in that you have disabled, simply remove the prefix string (e.g. Shockw) corresponding to that plug-in from the value of the camino.disabled_plugin_names hidden preference.

Note that unlike disabling all plug-ins, changes to this setting will take effect immediately in all windows and tabs.

You probably find the blinking above annoying. To stop it, change the browser.blink_allowed hidden preference to false.

Force frames to be resizable

Many sites use frames to display their contents, and sometimes the frames are too small. To force all frames to be resizable, set the layout.frames.force_resizability hidden preference to true.

Note that this will also make the frames appear with a fixed-width border and thus may make the pages look funny.

Delete all cookies when quitting

By default Camino keeps a cookie for as long as the site tells Camino to keep it. To make Camino automatically accept all cookies and then delete them when you quit Camino, set the network.cookie.lifetimePolicy hidden preference to 2.

Note: this does not apply to cookies you have already accepted or to sites present in the Exceptions List in the Privacy preference pane.

For information about this preference, read the MozillaZine Knowledge Base documentation.

Delete all cookies after a certain number of days

Camino normally keeps a cookie for as long as the site tells Camino to keep it. For enhanced privacy, some users may want to force all cookies to become temporary, so that the cookies are deleted when you quit Camino. However, if you do not quit Camino often, keeping cookies until quitting may not be a desirable solution; instead, you may wish to make Camino delete all cookies after a certain number of days. To make Camino automatically accept all cookies and then delete them after a certain number of days, set the network.cookie.lifetimePolicy hidden preference to 3 and set the network.cookie.lifetime.days hidden preference to 1 (or any other desired number of days).

Note: due to bugs in cookie handling in the Gecko rendering engine used by Camino, any cookies that a site specifies are to last “for the current session” will not be deleted until you quit Camino, even if you do not quit Camino until after the specified number of days has passed.

For information about this preference, read the MozillaZine Knowledge Base documentation.

Don’t open the Downloads window when starting a download

When a download begins, Camino will open the Downloads window if the window is not already open. To prevent the Downloads window from opening when a new download begins (for example, if you use Growl), change the browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting hidden preference to false.

Prevent each download from focusing the Downloads window

When a download begins, Camino will bring the Downloads window to the front if the window is already open. To allow the Downloads window to remain in the background when a new download begins, change the browser.download.manager.focusWhenStarting hidden preference to false.

View web page source in tabs

By default Camino opens a new window when viewing the source of web pages even when tabbed browsing is enabled. To have the page source appear in a new tab in the current window, set the camino.viewsource_in_tab hidden preference to true.

Wrap long lines in source view

When viewing the source of some pages you might have a horizontal scrollbar because the HTML document contains very long lines. To stop this from happening, change the view_source.wrap_long_lines hidden preference to true.

Disable the dotted focus ring that appears when clicking on a link

When clicking a link (text and images), a dotted ring appears around it (note that this feature is needed when using full keyboard access). To disable this ring, set the browser.display.focus_ring_width hidden preference to 0.

Disable automatic resizing of large images

When an image is displayed directly (not in a web page) and the image is too large to fit in the browser window, Camino will automatically scale the image down to fit in the window. Clicking on the image will toggle the image between actual size and scaled size. To disable automatic image resizing and force images always to be displayed in their full sizes, change the browser.enable_automatic_image_resizing hidden preference to false.

Log JavaScript and CSS errors to the Console

Camino can create a log of JavaScript and CSS errors it encounters in web pages. By default Camino will not perform any logging, but you can have Camino log these errors to your Console.log by setting the chimera.log_js_to_console hidden preference to true.

Note that changes to this setting will only have an effect after restarting Camino. There are also third-party utilities that allow you to view these errors in Camino instead of flooding your Console.log.

Navigate web pages using the cursor (caret)

Gecko-based browsers have a feature called “caret browsing” that allows you to move about on web pages using only the arrow keys, by moving a cursor around like in word processing documents. You can enable this browsing mode in Camino by changing the accessibility.browsewithcaret hidden preference to true.

Override Mac OS X proxy settings

Camino normally obtains information about your proxy server settings (including Proxy Auto-Config, or PAC) from the Network pane of the System Preferences (see the “Proxies” tab there). If for some reason you need to use a separate proxy setting for Camino, you need to change several hidden preferences.

Any time you want to specify separate proxy settings for Camino, you will need to set the camino.use_system_proxy_settings hidden preference to false to ensure that Camino doesn’t replace your custom PAC settings with the system’s proxy settings.

To set a separate PAC for Camino, set the network.proxy.type hidden preference to 2 and then set the network.proxy.autoconfig_url hidden preference to http://foo.com/bar.pac (where http://foo.com/bar.pac is the URL supplied by your system administrator).

To specify proxy settings manually, first set the set the network.proxy.type hidden preference to 1. Then, for each protocol you want to proxy (supported values are ftp, gopher, http, socks, and ssl), set a pair of preferences. First, set the network.proxy.protocol (where protocol is one of the supported values above, e.g. network.proxy.http) hidden preference to the hostname or IP address of the proxy (probably 127.0.0.1, but check with your proxy documentation or system administrator). Finally, set the network.proxy.protocol_port (again, where protocol is one of the supported values above, e.g. network.proxy.http_port) hidden preference to the port number (this value varies by proxy system; check with your proxy documentation or system administrator).

Disable spell-checking in web page text fields

Some users have expressed a dislike for the spell-checking feature in web page text fields in Camino. You can disable spell-checking in these text fields by setting the layout.spellcheckDefault hidden preference to 0.

For information about this preference, read the MozillaZine Knowledge Base documentation. If Mac OS X does not include a spelling dictionary for your preferred language, see our FAQ for information on adding a dictionary for your language.

Always honor web page styles on <select> pop-up menus

By default Camino draws all <select> pop-up menus using the standard Mac OS X pop-up menu widget and discards any CSS style rules specified by the web page. If you want to always display <select> pop-up menus using the web page’s style rule, set the camino.use_aqua_selects hidden preference to false.

Always use user-defined colors instead of web page colors

By default Camino honors color choices specified by web pages. If you wish to override web pages’ color choices with colors specified in the Colors & Links tab of the Appearance preference pane, set the browser.display.use_document_colors hidden preference to false.

Note: Changing this setting from the Camino defaults may break some websites.

Smooth all text, regardless of the Mac OS X font smoothing setting

By default Mac OS X applications do not smooth (“anti-alias”) text smaller than the size specified in the Appearance pane of the System Preferences. If you want all text in web pages to be smoothed, regardless of the font size, set the gfx.use_text_smoothing_setting hidden preference to false.

Note that changes to this setting will only have an effect after restarting Camino.

Apply color correction to images and CSS colors

Camino includes support for using color management (ColorSync) to correct the colors in images and web pages to better match your monitor’s color profile. Because using color management for all colors could lead to color mismatches, by default Gecko only uses color management for images that have been specifically tagged with a color profile. If you wish to turn on color management for all colors, set the gfx.color_management.mode hidden preference to 1.

Note that changes to this setting will only have an effect after restarting Camino. In addition, this feature can cause colors to appear worse than with color management off if your monitor is not correctly calibrated or if there are problems with your color profile. Finally, any content drawn by plug-ins will not be color-corrected.

Disable Bonjour

Camino supports discovery of websites and other Camino bookmarks using Apple’s Bonjour technology and lists any sites or bookmarks it finds in the Bookmarks menu and the Bookmarks Manager. You can stop this by changing the camino.disable_bonjour hidden preference to true.

Control DNS prefetch

By default, Camino will perform DNS lookup in advance, and in parallel, for any URLs included in the current page (including links, images, stylesheets, and scripts) in order to reduce the time required to load the current page and any pages you might visit by clicking on a link on the current page. You can turn this feature off by setting the network.dns.disablePrefetch hidden preference to true.

For security reasons, prefetch is disabled by default for documents loaded over HTTPS (SSL) connections. To enable prefetch for these documents, change the network.dns.disablePrefetchFromHTTPS hidden preference to false.

Note that changes to these settings will only have an effect on new tabs or windows created after making the change.

Complete URLs “inline”

When Camino completes a URL you are typing from Bookmarks or History, it only does so when you arrow downward to select the URL. You can make Camino complete the URL “inline” like Safari by setting the browser.urlbar.autoFill hidden preference to true.

Complete based only on URLs, not titles

When Camino offers suggestions for completing typing in the location bar, it normally uses both the URL and the page title to provide possible matches. You can make Camino only match against page URLs by setting the camino.autocomplete_from_titles hidden preference to false.

Note that changes to this setting will only have an effect after restarting Camino.

Show the Mac OS X Crash Reporter when crashing

The Camino Crash Reporter prevents the Mac OS X Crash Reporter from appearing when Camino crashes in order to reduce user confusion. If you want to see the Mac OS X Crash Reporter in addition to Camino Crash Reporter, open Terminal and enter the following command, all on one line:

defaults write org.mozilla.camino BreakpadSendAndExit -string NO

Note: Unlike the other hidden preferences on this page, you do not use about:config to enable this preference. You should use the terminal command above, and Camino should not be running when you enter the command.

Override automatic accept-language determination

Some web servers can send content in multiple languages, and Camino automatically determines which languages to tell a server you understand by reading the list of languages in the International pane of the System Preferences. In some cases you may wish to specify those languages manually (for instance, when you cannot put your preferred language at the top of the list in the System Preferences due to Mac OS X bugs).

To set the accept-language header manually, first create a plain text file called user.js to your Camino profile folder (in your home folder ~/Library/Application Support/Camino). (If you use TextEdit, create a new document and choose Make Plain Text from the Format menu to ensure the file will be saved as plain text.) Then add the following code to your user.js file (Camino should not be running when you edit this file):

// Manually specify the accept-language header
user_pref("camino.accept_languages", "nb,nn,no,en");

List the languages in the order in which you’d prefer them if a server can send content in multiple languages; in this example, you want Bokmål first, then Nynorsk, then generic Norwegian, then English if none of the other three languages are available.

Note: Unlike the other hidden preferences on this page, you do not use about:config to enable this preference. You should use the steps above to create and edit a user.js file, and Camino should not be running when you edit the file.

Launch Camino using a custom profile location

By default Camino uses ~/Library/Application Support/Camino to store its preferences and other profile data. For some specialized purposes, such as running multiple copies of Camino at the same time using different profiles, it might be useful have Camino use a custom profile location. To run a copy of Camino with a profile in a custom location, open Terminal and enter the following command, all on one line, replacing ~/Documents/MyTestProfile with the path to your desired profile:

CAMINO_PROFILE_DIR="~/Documents/MyTestProfile" open Camino.app

Note: Unlike the other hidden preferences on this page, you do not use about:config to enable this preference. You should use the terminal command above.

Make Camino pretend to be another browser (by “spoofing” the user-agent string)

Some websites have a “browser check” which allows them to only let certain browsers enter a website. In most cases Camino is perfectly capable of entering the websites and displaying them properly and would do so without any problems if the sites did not implement their browser checking poorly. This poor browser detection can sometimes be worked around by changing, or “spoofing,” the user-agent string that Camino reports to websites. Changing the user-agent string is also dangerous and will break many sites, and in some cases it may cause sites to ignore Camino because the site’s owners cannot tell that they are getting any visitors using Camino.

For those reasons, the Camino Project recommends against user-agent spoofing. If you feel you must spoof the user-agent string to access a site, there are third-party utilities that allow you to do this. Make sure you change the user-agent string back to Camino when you are done visiting the site, and consider complaining to the site’s webmaster or filing a Tech Evangelism bug against the site.

Other Documents

If there are any questions, tutorials, or preferences that would be helpful if they were explained in these pages, don’t hesitate to contact us, and we will add them as necessary.