I have this too off and on.. trying hitting F11 a few times to make
them show up

There are posts on the net on how to fix this, none that worked for me!
(I'm sure there is a workaround using terminal commands!)
For usability, just press the F11 key on your keyboard, (you may need
to press it twice as it toggles full screen, the faulty view, and the
one that exposes the required buttons. You need to do this each time
you open up firefox. I believe that if you install the non-ubuntu
version of firefox you don't get this problem, although I haven't
tried this myself.

Further to my earlier reply, I opened up "add/remove applications",
unchecked the tick for "ubufox extension for firefox", hit "apply
changes", and the problem is now solved. I am about try the beta 3.1
of firefox which allows for private browsing.

I'll give it a try- as well as the F11 suggestion. I'm just suprised
that Mozilla hasn't fixed this thing. I would expect this kind of thing
from Microsoft...

Ok- I removed the ubufox ext but nothing changed. I tried the F11
several times and was able to snag the top of the window and pull it
down a little. I then hit the Unmaximize button and that fixed it.

One of the hard things is to troubleshoot when you can't duplicate the problem.
Have you tried deleting your Firfeox settings. First quit Firefox. If you have
bookmarks to save you can use a service like Foxmarks (from Mozilla Add-ons) or
you can same the bookmarks.html file in your /.mozilla/firefox/default/ folder.
To see your hidden folders press Control-H in Nautilus file manager. Just
navigate to that place and drag that file onto your desktop. Then delete the
whole Firefox folder. Then restart Firefox. It will recreate your settings
folder. If it is still messed up then I would remove it completely in Synaptic
and re-install it. Once it is working again, just drag your bookmarks from your
desktop back to where it came from and it will replace the recently created one.

If this does not work, then consider using Flock, Opera or SeaMonkey until
Firefox works to your satisfaction. Flock can be found at Getdeb.net. Opera can
be found on their site. SeaMonkey is in the repos. You can also get Safari to
work in Wine and Chrome works if you get it from Codeweavers. It is called
Chromium. www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/

Actually that's how I fixed the problem the first time. I deleted
Foxfire and then re-installed it and sync-ed up my bookmarks with
Foxmarks. The only problem is that the problem came back after a
week. Right now the problem is fixed, so I'm keeping my fingers
crossed.

Perhaps you are installing an Add-on that is getting Firefox to misbehave. There
are tons of Add-ons and it may be good to install them individually and pay
attention to what the result of each is. Some types of Add-ons have alternatives
that do the same thing.