firefox doesnt save any settings
 

strange problem with firefox -- none of the extensions, themes, or toolbar customizations get saved. on restarting they just dont exist, i'm back to the initial start settings. bookmarks, however, work. perhaps its a mandrake issue? -- it worked fine on windows and fedora core.

cant seem to find an explanation for this anywhere... any pointers?

Since firefox, like practically any other program, saves its settings in your home folder, maybe the problem is there. Check to make sure that there's a .mozilla folder there. In that folder is a subfolder called firefox that contains all of your settings and such. Make sure this folder and any subfolders are writable. If that checks out okay, run firefox in a terminal and post any output you get.

the /.mozilla/firefox folder exists, contains all the settings, and is writable

at the terminal --
if i type 'firefox' from my home directory or the firefox directory i get
bash: firefox: command not found

if i type ./firefox or sh firefox the browser window opens up but its the same thing as before. there are no messages in the terminal

I had that problem before don't know what causes it I ended up reinstalling delete .mozilla it will make a new one.