Re: lost the GNOME panel, how do I get it back?

[Jef Spaleta]

> HOW do I get back the default panel?

Have you tried running gnome-panel from a terminal,  to get a fresh
panel? Did you have gnome setup to autosave session on logout? I've
found that that autosave session on logout feature can be a little
counter-intutive if you have a problem severe enough to segfault out a
program you normally expect to be running like gnome-panel or nautilus.
It seems the autosave session on logout does its job too well and
notices the fact that a something like gnome-panel isn't running and so
saves the session state that way.  So with autosave session on logout
enabled...you can't just use a logout/login trick to recover if
something segfaults out or whatever.  I'd imagine from a non-technical
user perspective this would be extremely frustrating..you dont know why
something stopped working...you logout and login again..and its still
not working...sometimes becuase that autosave feature is enable...so a
program just isnt started.

If there was some way for autosave session to know the difference when a
program was disabled by a user or stopped working because of some
unknown error...and would not autosave some session state info if it
noticed an error..that would be good...but thats probably not so easy to
implement.

-jef

lost the GNOME panel, how do I get it back?

[Elton Woo]

On August 16, 2003 01:49 pm, Jef Spaleta  wrote:
> > HOW do I get back the default panel?
>
> Have you tried running gnome-panel from a terminal,  to get a fresh

Actually, it won't run, since it detects a panel already running (the one
at the top of the screen.
> panel? Did you have gnome setup to autosave session on logout?

No I always have autosave *off* (by _default_, I think).
> saves the session state that way.  So with autosave session on logout
> enabled...you

can also "save" a buggered up session, thereby putting yourself into
a loop (sez Elton, who was good at writing spaghetti code...)! LOL!!!
> be extremely frustrating..you dont know why
> something stopped working...you logout and login again..and its still
> not working...

That's how you LEARN. You have to keep digging and digging, and
asking, and searching until you know the "whys" "howtos", etc...
> If there was some way for autosave session to know the difference when a
> program was disabled by a user or stopped working because of some
> unknown error...and would not autosave some session state info if it
> noticed an error..that would be good...but thats probably not so easy to
> implement.

True. This sort of 'feature' would be most helpful, especially to new
migrants from the Windows world.

Anyway, I've now learnt a new lesson today, by the hands-on practical 
method: I've re-created a new floating panel from the one at the top of
the screen, added back the main menu, and created an _almost_ exact
replica of the original (from a KDE screen-shot). With two notable
exceptions: The up2date icon is double it's size, and the slide buttons
are missing the default arrow icons (in their place is the "missing or
broken icon").

Elton ;-)
(who has caused many a teacher premature aging and grey hairs...)