Gnome bottom panel keeps dying

[fred smith]

On F12, recently the bottom panel (on a vanilla Gnome installation) has
decided to disappear occasionally.

the occasions have become more and more frequent til I end up rebooting
at least once to get a bottom panel.

in fact, today, I don't get one (visibly) at all. Clues?

And today, the ABRT flashing red light appears on the top panel, but when
I hover the mouse over it it says "Abrt service is not running." I'm
gonna guess that the dying panel has triggered abrt, but as to why it
says it isn't running, I have no idea. It IS enabled in the services
app.

TIA!

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
    "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of
     heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
------------------------------ Matthew 7:21 (niv) -----------------------------