[Tfug] Clearing Firefox-related cache, configs, etc

[Claude Rubinson]

Hi all,

So, I'm having various Firefox-related problems that I suspect are
related to Firefox's cache and/or Flash's caching and/or Java's
caching and/or something else that I haven't thought of.  Basically,
the issue is that I've got a few different websites that simply won't
behave properly under Firefox/Iceweasel.  The most prominent (recent)
example is Blackboard, the online learning webapp that my school (UHD)
uses.  When I enter my login credentials, I get erroneously redirected
to another (Flash-based) webapp from my school.  It's worth pointing
out that UHD's various web apps are *really* kludgey, with a number of
IE-specific hacks, browser-id checking, etc.  That being said, with
adequate browser-id spoofing, I'm generally able to get my work done.
(Incidentally, Google Chrome pretty much "just works," although I'm
not sure exactly why.)

The Blackboard login has been become increasingly problematic over the
past few weeks.  Usually, some combination of clearing Firefox's
cache, deleting cookies and history, etc would eventually allow me to
get to the correct landing page and I'd be able to actually log into
the app.  For the past few days, however, nothing's worked--I'm always
erroneously redirected to this other webapp.  However, Google Chrome
would work.  I tried creating a new Firefox profile without
success--regardless of which profile used, I experience this same
problem (entering my login credentials and being redirected to the
wrong app).

To test whether it's a Firefox problem, I created a new (Unix) user account.
Tada!  With a completely new user account, Firefox has no problems
with the login.

My (quite possibly erroneous) suspicion is that there's something
stuck in a cache somewhere that's causing problems.  The UHD websites
use a combination of Flash, Java, and (horribly-designed) AJAXy
design, so it could be any of those.  To further complicate matters,
I've had the same $HOME for at least 8 years, so it's quite possible
that I've got various caches located different places (I know, for
example, that Firefox has moved its cache around over the years).

I'm wondering if (1) anybody has any suggestions for definitively
isolating and identifying the problem(s) I'm running into and/or (2) a
listing of the various locations that web apps and web technologies
deposit their configs, caches, etc.  (Another example: With my
existing user account, I can't seem to convince JStor, an paywall
database of academic journals, that I'm no longer affiliated with the
University of Arizona.  With the new user account, however, JStor no
longer "recognizes" me.)  I'd be happy to just delete any possibly
offending directories to see if that solves the problem.

Thanks!

Claude