OK -- the solution offered by Micah Gersten solved the problem
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Home Page choice not retained after closing Firefox
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/387301
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Public bug reported:
If I change my start page away from the default, it works fine until I
close Firefox. When I return, it has been reset to the ubuntu/google
start page
** Affects: firefox (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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Home Page choice not retained after
