Panel will not come out of hiding

[Ray Parrish]

Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
> - On Wed, 12/3/08, Ray Parrish <crp at cmc.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> From: Ray Parrish <crp at cmc.net>
>> Subject: Panel will not come out of hiding
>> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 3:31 PM
>> Hello,
>>
>> When I booted up the first time today Ubuntu wasn't in
>> a co-operative 
>> mood. I have my panels set to auto hide and when I tried to
>> get the top 
>> panel to come out so I could start Thunderbird it would not
>> slide out. I 
>> tried ALT-F2 to get the run box, and it wouldn't come
>> up either.
>>
>>     
> I think you problem lies with compiz or some setting you made with desktop effects, but IMBW. I had the same problem with ALT-F2 using compiz in gutsy until someone told me that compiz doesn't support it or something to that effect and told me to rm compiz. I did and ALT-F2 popped right back up. I'm not sure ALT-F2 is available in compiz. Maybe someone elso does.  When I installed intrepid on a new partition, compiz is installed but I don't use it and ALT-F2 still works. You probably can't access the add widgets plasmoid now but it may allow you to get you panels back. I'm using kde4.1 in Intrepid so I don't know if it applies to gnome but expect it does.
>
>   
Well, I've been checking, and the settings do stick across kernels, so 
I'm not going to be removing my beloved commpiz as I'm addicted to my 
four desktop interface. I don't think that's it.
>> So, I tried CTRL-ALT-Backspace to log out and back in, and
>> this time I 
>> couldn't even see the edge of the top panel which
>> normally sticks out 
>> ever so slightly when it's hidden. I'm very new to
>> Ubuntu, [since 
>> August] so I didn't know what else to try. Out of
>> desperation I tried 
>> the old Windows ALT-CTRL-DEL trick, and after a pause for
>> 15 seconds or 
>> so the normal shutdown dialog appeared, and I clicked the
>> restart button.
>>
>>     
> You might try loging in in a failsafe mode from the log in screen and try to fix from there. It would help if you could remember what you changed in compiz just before the issue occured. That you help the experts discover what caused the issue.
>
>   
>> I waited quite a while and it didn't shut down, so I
>> resorted to a hard 
>> power down and restarted in the next previous kernel for
>> Linux and 
>> things were back to normal.
>>
>>     
> If you hadn't started using compiz in this kernel or hadn't used desktop effects, then I think compiz is surely your problem. If nothing else works I would purge compiz and start over trying to recall what you did just before the issue came up.
>
>   
>> What the heck happened there? I made some changes to the
>> compiz settings 
>> last night before shutting down, and also changed the
>> resolution setting 
>> for the boot up screen using the Start up Manager on the
>> menu.
>>     
> Changing resolutions can make you desktop not fit on the screen as reported on the list sevral times. Suggest you go back to the resolution you were using before the issue came up to see if that solves your problem. I'd do that even before considering removing compiz.
>
>  Do 
>   
>> settings made while booted into one kernel stick when you
>> boot to a 
>> previous one?
>>
>>     
> I'm not sure if they are on the same version installed but you results suggest it doesn't. But, I really don't know.
>
>   
>> I also want to ask if there is a keyboard command that will
>> force the 
>> top panel to appear? In Windows when I couldn't get the
>> menu I could use 
>> CTRL-ESC to force it to appear, but that didn't work
>> when I tried it in 
>> Ubuntu.
>>
>>     
> You might try ALT-Tab to cycle through opened files and the desktop.
> I don't know if that gets you something you can work with but it wont hurt to try.
>
>   
>> Let me know if there is something I need to fix before I
>> reboot to the 
>> newest kernel again. The newest kernel I have here on Hardy
>> is 
>> 2.6.24-22-generic and I'm currently running in
>> 2.6.24-21-generic.
>>
>> Thanks for any help you can be. Later, Ray Parrish
>>     
>
> Leonard Chatagnier
> lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
>
>
>
>   
I'm sorry, but Leonard sound more like he's guessing than anything, so 
I'm going to wait and see if someone who actually knows about this 
problem answers. It's running fine in this kernel at the moment with the 
setting changes I made, and I haven't tried a boot back into the newer 
one yet, so maybe it won't even be a problem anymore if I do.

Later, Ray Parrish

-- 
http://www.rayslinks.com/ Web index of human reviewed links.
<http://www.rayslinks.com/Troubleshooting%20and%20fixing%20Windows.html>
Trouble shooting and Fixing Windows
http://www.writingsoftheschizophrenic.com My poetry in web pages