found the actual cause, which is a locally installed 2.7.3 version of libxml. Removed that (karmic has 2.7.5, which eliminates the earlier need to have 2.7.3 installed) and the problem disappeared.
** Changed in: firefox-3.5 (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- kubuntu karmic: firefox SIGSEGV in xmlio iff libgnomeui-0 is installed https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/477632 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs