First - Please don't start beating me up! I searched and searched and searched. This particular problem I just couldn't find. I swear I searched!

n800 - Firmware: 4.2007.26-8 Yes, I know it isn't the latest, but I've been working happily with it for some time now.

Microb installed properly:
microb-browser 0.0.8-4
microb-eal 0.1.12-1
microb-engine 1.0.3-13
microb-l10n 0.0.4-1

Changing the engine to microb doesn't change me to microb engine. It continues with opera engine. I confirm this with my privoxy header page under http://p.p and about:

.browser is fine:
[Settings]
engine=microb
hidden=true
First_Start=false
Full_Screen=true
Norm_Screen=true
Optim_View=false
Merge_Frames=false
Load_Pref=false
Find_Toolbar=false
Image_Policy=3
JS_Stoped_By_Low_Mem=true
Dirty_State=false
Enable_PopUp_Windows=0
Total_Dis_Shortcuts=0

I've installed strace, but running strace /usr/bin/browser doesn't return anything interesting. (tried with -f, -ff, -F)

I've reinstalled microb. No change.
I've blown away .browser, .opera, .mozilla under /home/user. No change.
I've even moved /home/user to /home/user.old, rebooted, tried changing the engine. No change.

I'm now at a loss. ONLY thing that I have "non-deb'ed" in my system is the XFCE4 by penguinbait. Don't know if that has anything to do with it.

I know microb had worked in the past. Could be that it hasn't been working for some time.

I'm certain that a reflash of my device will sort this out, but I don't want to do this on 2 counts:

1) Practical - My system is working the way I want it with all the add ons and customization that I'm happy with. I don't want to have to go through the effort of getting myself back to this position for something as small as this. 2008 stable would be a different issues...
2) Principle - This isn't Windows and this community isn't my work's help desk! Seriously, I want to know what's wrong and fix it. Due to the lack of output, it's hard for me to identify where the problem lies. I'm not expecting an answer (though it would be nice), but ideas of where I can look.

Thanks for your help!

And, again, if this answer is here in the forums already, I really tried to find it. I searched and read through threads for about 3 hours this evening before I posted this at, what is for me, midnight.

Select your engine, and immediately close the browser.
Open the browser and enter the URL about:
This will show you which engine you are using.

Thanks. That confirmed what Privoxy was telling me: I'm using the Opera engine, and the Microb engine is not being used.

I can't really answer your question, but there is something you may want to check. When you click on that "browser" icon, "something" happens. This "something" is dependent on what engine is chosen. I think that most of those "something" (what happens when you click on the screen left-most menus) is defined somewhere under /usr/share, maybe in the file /usr/share/applications/hildon-navigator/hildon-task-navigator-bookmarks.desktop

You may want to check if permissions are set correctly around there. You'll need to be root to do that.

I tried running the command from a shell. The 'something' is /usr/bin/browser, from what I understand, that is the command regardless of the engine. My trouble in understanding what happens next is (a) there is no output from the command, so I can't identify why .browser's setting is being ignored and (b) strace stops output suddenly, and any forked or child process isn't followed.

As I replaced my /home/user, I suspect the problem to be outside that directory (i.e. not a gconf or user specific setting). Since I reinstalled the deb's for Microb, I'm quite certain the required files exist. So, outside of these two locations, where else could I look for problems?

I suppose that you already noticed that /usr/bin/browser is a link to maemo-invoker, right?

Interesting! I did not! Now I do see, however. Any suggestion on what I can do?

I found this
/usr/bin/browser --engine=microb
should work, regardless of the .browser configuration.

It didn't work.

In the strace, I did notice:
user:~$ strace /usr/bin/browser --engine=microb
execve("/usr/bin/browser", ["/usr/bin/browser", "--engine=microb"], [/* 61 vars */]) = 0
uname({sys="Linux", node="Nokia-N800-26", ...}) = 0
brk(0) = 0x12000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3

Maybe there is a problem with the /etc/ld.so.conf file? Mine looks like this:

/usr/X11R6/lib
/usr/lib/minimo
/usr/local/xrdp
/usr/local/lib
/usr/lib
/lib
/usr/lib/microb-engine
/usr/lib/microb-engine/components

Thanks for your help! I sorted it out:

minimo was conflicting. I removed minimo, removed the /usr/lib/minimo line from /etc/ld.so.conf and then, as root, did an ldconfig... walla! It works!

All set!