Disappearing menu panel Part 2

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:59:51 -0500
mark <markfpyles at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Charlie:
> 
> Thank you for the information but my Alt+F2 doesn't work. I can't get
> it to bring up any windows when I press Alt+F2. Is there another way
> or a command line way? Thank you.
> 
> Mark
> 
> Charlie Kravetz wrote:
> > On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:59:16 -0500
> > mark <markfpyles at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >   
> >> Hello:
> >>
> >> I did all the things you suggested but nothing seemed to work. I
> >> was at my wits end due to all of my programs that I used were on
> >> the top menu panel and I could no longer open any programs. I
> >> finally had to reinstall and this time put my program shortcut
> >> icons on my desktop instead of in the menu panel. After a couple
> >> of times of restarting the computer, the menus are gone again! I
> >> am able to get to the programs I use most frequently, but still
> >> can't get to the menu options I need such as "system" to get to
> >> the system preferences and what have you. The screen's original
> >> resolution was set for 1280x800 which I didn't set, but the
> >> computer did from the installation and so I left it that way. Is
> >> there some way to fix this problem that keeps happening? It is
> >> driving me crazy!!! Thank you again for all your help!
> >>
> >> Mark
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> NoOp wrote:
> >>     
> >>> On 12/29/2008 04:17 PM, markfpyles wrote:
> >>>   
> >>>       
> >>>> Hi everyone:
> >>>>
> >>>> I have a big problem. I am running Ubuntu 8.04 (Gnome desktop) on
> >>>> a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop and when I closed the computer down
> >>>> everything was fine, but when I started the computer up the menu
> >>>> panel at the top of my screen was gone and also my taskbar at the
> >>>> bottom. All I am left with is a blank desktop. Is there a way to
> >>>> get my menu at the top of my screen to work again? Please tell me
> >>>> I don't have to re-install everything. Thank you.
> >>>>
> >>>> Mark
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>     
> >>>>         
> >>> My _guess_ is that when you started back up the desktop defaulted
> >>> to 800x600 resolution and the menus are still there but hidden
> >>> because of the screen resolution.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Try this:
> >>>
> >>> Alt-F2 (Alt key plus F2 key)
> >>>   then enter
> >>>     gnome-display-properties
> >>> and see what the resolution is set at. See if yoiu can reset to
> >>> 1024x768 or whatever your standard resoluton is. If that doesn't
> >>> work, then try this:
> >>>
> >>> Alt-F2
> >>>   then enter
> >>>     gksu displayconfig-gtk
> >>> and try resetting from there.
> >>>
> >>> If that doesn't work, then reboot and at the gdm login select
> >>> "Session" and then "Failsafe GNOME" and login using that. That may
> >>> get you back to a screen that shows the menus.
> >>>
> >>> And if all of those don't work, then reboot and at the grub menu,
> >>> select the second kernel option for "Recovery". When that finishes
> >>> booting select the xfix option. That will reset your xorg.conf to
> >>> a default. When it finishes, select the 1st option to continue to
> >>> boot normally.
> >>>
> >>>       
> >
> > Just a guess here. Have you gone into your /home directory and
> > deleted all the configuration files for gnome-panel? 
> >
> > Remove gnome-panel using Alt+F2, sudo apt-get remove --purge
> > gnome-panel , then go to ~/.config/gnome/gnome-panel and delete the
> > files. Then using Terminal (Alt+F2) add the panel back (sudo apt-get
> > install gnome-panel)
> >
> > This will, of course, remove any additions to the panel, but may fix
> > the problem.
> >
> > Good luck,
> >

The only thing Alt+F2 does is bring up a command line. If it doesn't
work, type the commands on the command line or use a tty terminal
(Ctrl+Alt+F2). 

sudo apt-get remove --purge gnome-panel
go to ~/.config/gnome/gnome-panel and delete the files
sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

NOTE: you may have to do 
killall -i gnome-panel
before it will let you remove gnome-panel.


-- 
Charlie Kravetz 
Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]