Firefox and FEBE Problems in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)

As noted in a previous post, I was having problems with using FEBE to restore a profile with all of my settings and add-ons preset.  This post describes the steps I took in a failed effort to fix that problem.

I completely uninstalled Firefox, first, by searching for it in Synaptic and marking it (3.5.7) for complete removal and clicking Apply, and then by navigating to Home in Nautilus and deleting the .mozilla/firefox folder.  It was a hidden folder, so in Nautilus I had to set View > Show Hidden Files to see it.  Then I reinstalled Firefox 3.5.7 in Synaptic and reinstalled FEBE.  To run FEBE in Firefox, I selected Tools > FEBE > Restore Profile (kill the pop-up reminders) > Create new profile (I called mine Working).  This gave me a box that offered to let me name a new profile, but that was not taking any text input.

With the aid of the tutorial, I discovered that closing Firefox would actually not close the Restore Profile window.  Now I was able to create my new profile and then Start Profile Restore.  Again, it did what it did before:  "Profile restore in progress ... Please wait" continued for much longer than the "minute or two" recommended by the tutorial, and the hard drive light was not running. I killed FEBE and restarted Firefox.  It did not show FEBE as being installed.  It did show other extensions (Tools > Add-ons) that it had not shown previously.

I installed FEBE again, this time from within the Add-ons window instead of from the Mozilla webpage, and again restarted Firefox.  Now Firefox showed only the two add-ons (FEBE 6.3.2 and Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.8) that it had shown at the start.  I went through the profile restore steps again.  To get the "Start profile restore" button to light up, I had to switch back and forth between the default and Working profiles.  Then I started the restore again.  Again, no action.  After a minute or two, I killed it and tried restoring a different profile.  Still nothing.

Another flaky thing that Firefox was doing:  it was opening a tiny window sometimes.  This little window could be expanded, but there was nothing in it.  In Synaptic, I did a Quick Search for Firefox and uninstalled all versions that were installed.  I then reinstalled 3.5.7 and tried again in FEBE.  Still no profile restore.  At this point, I gave up and reinstalled.