Firefox address and search bar not working after update to FF 11 on Lucid

The address bar and search bar in Firefox stopped working after I upgraded from FF 10 to 11 in ubuntu 10.04. Typing in URLs or search phrases is not followed by any FF activity. I can open URLs from bookmarks though.

Also, I cannot access "Manage search engines", the Add-ons-manager won't load.
At first, the bookmarks menu remained blank, too. That changed when I brought up the classic Menu bar instead of the Firefox menu.

I have reinstalled Firefox both from the mozillateam and the ubuntu main ppa's, to no avail.

same problem reported by others on ubuntu forums.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1941792

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: firefox 11.0+build1-0ubuntu0.10.04.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-39.86-generic 2.6.32.56+drm33.22
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-39-generic i686
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ibrahim 1441 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20120310193829
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x90200000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9227'
   Components : 'HDA:83847618,8086a201,00100201'
   Controls : 37
   Simple ctrls : 24
Channel: release
Date: Fri Mar 16 19:45:43 2012
EtcFirefoxSyspref: Cannot parse /etc/firefox/syspref.js - [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/firefox/syspref.js'
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IncompatibleExtensions:
 Bindwood - <email address hidden>, Version=1.0.4, minVersion=3.5, maxVersion=9.0.*, Location=app-system-share, Type=extension, Active=Yes
 Ubuntu Firefox Modifications - <email address hidden>, Version=0.9.4, minVersion=4.0b6, maxVersion=10.*, Location=app-system-share, Type=extension, Active=Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100816.1)
IpRoute:
 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.2 metric 1
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 proto static
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.

 vboxnet0 no wireless extensions.
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_IN
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=11.0/20120310193829 (Running)
RfKill:

RunningIncompatibleAddons: True
SourcePackage: firefox
dmi.bios.date: 11/07/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: TS94610J.86A.0087.2007.1107.1049
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: D946GZIS
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAD66165-302
dmi.chassis.type: 2
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrTS94610J.86A.0087.2007.1107.1049:bd11/07/2007:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnD946GZIS:rvrAAD66165-302:cvn:ct2:cvr: