I've tested this on a 9.10 Ubuntu machine with Pidgin 2.6.6. And enabling/disabling the smileys is working. If you're using the latest version, turn it off from the Preferences > Themes and select None in the Smiley Themes portion.
I've tested this on a 9.10 Ubuntu machine with Pidgin 2.6.6. And enabling/disabling the smileys is working. If you're using the latest version, turn it off from the Preferences > Themes and select None in the Smiley Themes portion.