Yikes! Panel disappeared; Won't start from 'settings', either (F14)

[Ron Leach]

List, good afternoon,

Switched on netbook as per usual today, login, but then there's no 
'panel'.  I can right-click on the desktop, navigate the applications 
to 'XFCE settings' but when I click on 'panel' nothing happens. 
(Other settings 'applets' work fine.)

I've gone through Display, Desktop, Window manager etc, these settings 
all seem fine.

My guess is the 'panel' applet isn't running.

Bit of a problem, because I use the network item on the panel to 
select a network for connection.

Another clue, at login screen, there is a 'panel' which shows language 
and keyboard selectors.  After login, though, the panel disappears and 
doesn't come back.

I know that this is F15 testing day, but hadn't realised my netbook 
knew, too. :)  More seriously, could anybody hint what I should check 
to see why the panel isn't coming up?

I'd like to double check that it isn't caused just by a 'desktop' 
switch, could anyone also let me know how to switch desktops when the 
panel isn't there?

Sorry for the so-basic questions.  Both F13 and F14 have been really 
reliable for me on netbooks, and so I don't know enough to 
troubleshoot them.

Very many thanks,

Ron

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Ron,

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 8:09 AM, Ron Leach <ronleach(a)tesco.net&gt; wrote:
>  List, good afternoon,
>
>  Switched on netbook as per usual today, login, but then there's no
>  'panel'.  I can right-click on the desktop, navigate the applications
>  to 'XFCE settings' but when I click on 'panel' nothing happens.
>  (Other settings 'applets' work fine.)
>  
You can restart your panel at any time by calling the Alt+F2 run dialog
and typing in "xfce4-panel -r". If this doesn't work then maybe the
panel settings somehow got mangled the last time you shutdown or went to
"sleep". (maybe an unclean shutdown corrupted the files) In that case
you can find the files in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/. You can back them up
by moving and starting afresh with a new login. Just login to a text
terminal by Ctrl+Alt+Fn, where Fn is any key between F2..F6, and try
something like "mv ~/.config/xfce4/panel ~/.config/xfce4/panel.bak".

>  I'd like to double check that it isn't caused just by a 'desktop'
>  switch, could anyone also let me know how to switch desktops when the
>  panel isn't there?
>  
You can always switch desktops with "Ctrl+Alt+<arrow>" or
"Ctrl+Fn", where n is the desktop number. So if you want to
go to desktop 3 try "Ctrl+F3".

>  Very many thanks,
>
>  Ron 
Hopefully this helps you sort things out.

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

[Nick Schermer]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 7:35 PM, suvayu ali <fatkasuvayu+linux(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  You can restart your panel at any time by calling the Alt+F2 run
> dialog
>  and typing in "xfce4-panel -r". 
Restart doesn't work if the panel is not running, so you should also
try "xfce4-panel" to start it in case it crashed and was not restarted
by the session manager.

Nick

[Ron Leach]

Nick Schermer wrote:
>  On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 7:35 PM, suvayu ali
> <fatkasuvayu+linux(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
> > You can restart your panel at any time by calling the Alt+F2 run dialog
> > and typing in "xfce4-panel -r".
>  
>  Restart doesn't work if the panel is not running, so you should also
>  try "xfce4-panel" to start it in case it crashed and was not restarted
>  by the session manager. 
Nick, Suvayu, thank you both (and Suvayu for the 'desktop selection' 
advice).  I did

xfce4-panel

and the panel came back.  I then shut down while making sure that 
session remembered option was selected.  On restart, everything is 
fine.  I didn't need to alter any files.

regards, Ron