Turn off enclosing <p> tags in CKEditor 3.0

Across the internet, people have noticed that setting config.enterMode to CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR removes the wrapping paragraph tags from CKEditor. It's worth noting that the setting changes the behavior of the enter key to insert line breaks rather than paragraphs, which is not desirable.

See: http://docs.cksource.com/ckeditor_api/symbols/CKEDITOR.config.html#.enterMode "It is recommended to use the CKEDITOR.ENTER_P setting because of its semantic value and correctness."

However, the setting that is designed to remove that initial paragraph, config.autoParagraph, isn't advisable either, as it introduces "unpredictable usability issues" because the editor really wants a top-level block element.

See: http://docs.cksource.com/ckeditor_api/symbols/CKEDITOR.config.html#.autoParagraph

The magic happens on wysiwygarea/plugin.js, line 410, where the editor selects the default block element based on config.enterMode. A config option to change the default block element would allow us to start with a div, but we'd continue getting more divs with every enter press, unless we changed the paragraph format via the menu.

See: http://docs.cksource.com/ckeditor_api/symbols/src/plugins_wysiwygarea_plugin.js.html

It would be possible to remove the wrapping paragraph tag with post-processing (either on the server or in CKEditor's getData event), but that leads us into the same problem as disabling autoParagraph: there's no top-level block.

I would rather say that there's not a good solution, but rather a handful of half-solutions, than to accept changing config.enterMode as the canonical solution.

CKEDITOR.config.enterMode = CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR; - this works perfectly for me. Have you tried clearing your browser cache - this is an issue sometimes.
You can also check it out with the jQuery adapter:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/ckeditor/ckeditor.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/ckeditor/adapters/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
    $('#your_textarea').ckeditor({
        toolbar: 'Full',
        enterMode : CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR,
        shiftEnterMode: CKEDITOR.ENTER_P
    });
});
</script>

UPDATE according to @Tomkay's comment:

Since version 3.6 of CKEditor you can configure if you want inline content to be automatically wrapped with tags like <p></p>. This is the correct setting:

CKEDITOR.config.autoParagraph = false;

Source: http://docs.cksource.com/ckeditor_api/symbols/CKEDITOR.config.html#.autoParagraph

Try this in config.js

CKEDITOR.editorConfig = function( config )
{
config.enterMode = CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR;
config.shiftEnterMode = CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR;
};