To recap:
I had no problems on the 4.0.3-based versions. A few days after upgrading to the 4.0.4-based versions (yes, I did do a full data/cache wipe first) and the 4.0.4 versions of the Google apps, someone tried to send me an MMS message. I have it set to auto-retrieve, but in this case it didn't. Tried to manually download it, and it failed. This has happened since with messages from other people from different carriers. If I try to SEND a pic via MMS, the app (stock Messaging app) just crashes. I can still receive regular text messages, but trying to delete some message threads causes the app to crash; some delete OK.
I don't think this is a ROM or kernel issue. If it were, everyone would be complaining about it.
I'm now assuming that I'm having problems with the database (/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db). I tried flipping the permission bits with Root Explorer, but that didn't change anything. Short of deleting and somehow recreating it (don't know if just "touching" the file will work) and losing all the data - is there anything else I can do to solve this?
Thanks!