Would a civilization that is trying to colonize a landless world be able to do so?
Would a civilization that is trying to permanently colonize a landless world with no atmosphere (think Europa's sea) be able to do so?
Permanence matters - it means you can't simply build domes that contain atmosphere as they would not survive for millenia. You need a civilization for which aquatic life is naturally adapted.
It's easy to imagine how a civilization would be able to adapt to sea-only world as far as adjusting the lifeforms to be aquatic (after all, most of Earth life is).
But how could they preserve the technology over long term, if there's no possibility of fire? Without fire, you can not produce new metal (no smelting of ore).
Are there plausible solutions to this? (within somewhat realistic realms of technology - e.g. no "unobtainium", magic, energy-state beings and such. Most likely path seems bioengineering or unusual yet plausible chemistry.
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Actually, some of the challenges you describe might not be too hard to overcome. Maybe you've thought of the same things I have.
Metals
I'll tackle smelting first. The key issue you described is that fire would be impossible to create. Well, there is a workaround. Smelting doesn't necessarily need fire; it simply needs heat. How can you produce heat? Well, there's the obvious idea of a portable heating device. All you need is a way to power it - solar might be good, although in a world with nothing but liquids, hydropower could work. Lets go with hydropower for now.
To get the materials to find/produce metals, you have to dig. Given that there isn't any land, you have to go to the bottom of the ocean. I would recommend a permanent undersea base, at the bottom of the ocean. Hydropower could be possible if any currents can be harnessed, similar to tidal power. Miners can attempt to dig into the crust and extract ores, which can then be refined into metals and smelted, using heat, which is provided by a device powered by the currents of the ocean.
Atmosphere
This really isn't a big issue, especially as you've said that it doesn't really matter. First off, are the colonists suited for aquatic life - i.e. can they breathe underwater? If so, you can skip the rest of this section. If not, though, they need some sort of air. Now, it isn't feasible to simply keep on resupplying the colony with air - that would be cost-prohibitive. But what you can do is utilize an idea that has already been proposed for missions to Mars: bring plants, or plant-like equivalents.
Humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants do the opposite. In theory, if enough nutrients are continuously injected into a system, plants and humans could survive together indefinitely, each taking in the other's waste gases. By "plant-like equivalent," I mean an organism that performs that function for the colonizing species. Or, if you're lazy, perhaps advanced carbon dioxide scrubbers would do. By the way, you can supply the plants with light by electric lamps.
Power
See "Metals". Hydropower and solar power would work well, although hydropower is preferable if you're at the bottom of the ocean smelting metals. Geothermal is also an option, as is nuclear. The issue with the latter is getting fuel and subsequently disposing of it, so I'd stick to hydropower.
Fossil fuels are also an obvious choice, but I'd stay away from them. Even if they formed on a planet like this, there of course would not be a never-ending supply of them. A few centuries in and the civilization would be stuck. Also, they would completely pollute the once-pristine planet.
In response to a comment from DVK: I'll defend the possibility of solar power because there is still a home star. There's nothing preventing the colonists from building a power-collection station on the ice. In fact, having ice means that buildings on the ice are possible, and many habitats would not have to be on the ocean floor.
Food
If you want a self-sustaining system here, you're going to need to bring in other organisms to eat. You'll need to create a food web here - perhaps an entire ecosystem. If the colonizers are vegans, you're set - just bring in plants. If they're more of the red meat variety, though, you're in trouble. Having cow-like creatures would be a waste of space. Try aquatic creatures - fish are, of course, the first thing that comes to mind.
Special Case - Europa
Let's say that the planet in question is Europa (albeit a scaled-up version). This means there is a layer of thick ice surrounding the planet, which covers a thick ocean, possibly of water. This is, actually, pretty good. Why? Well, the ice can act as land. For all intents and purposes, what good does land do? It serves as a support structure. This means that buildings, towns - perhaps even cities, if the ice is thick enough - can be built on it. And, yes, stations for solar power. Having Europa as a planet to colonize actually gives us a little loophole, which could help the intrepid colonists. There are practical issues to consider, such as actually getting through the ice, but those can be solved.
In Science Fiction
The problem of how to survive on a planet with no land has been considered in The Lost City of Faar, the second book in the Pendragon series, by DJ MacHale. The people of Faar have survived by building floating cities on the ocean. If there wasn't ice, this would be easy - just build a floating city and cover it with a dome. If there was ice, you would have to try and make the city a submarine. By the way, the Pendragon series itself could inspire a whole series of questions on Worldbuilding simply because of its premise, traveling through wormholes to different parallel universes in different times. But I digress. . .
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