avrdude kept reporting the device signature to be 1E--0B when it says it expects the signature to be 1E--06
Ok, so you have an atmega168p instead of an atmega168. To avoid mistakes, it is better to invoke avrdude with -pm168p instead of using -F.
Not all avrdude installations have an entry for atmega168p in their avrdude.conf; if not, use the avrdude from the arduino IDE.