Re: help with dead gnome-panel?

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Wed, Nov 29, 2000 at 06:26:01PM +0000 or thereabouts, Nick Belshaw wrote:
> I don't know if this is a bug or not but if someone could help me
> out....

Programs shouldn't segfault, so it's probably a bug somehow :)

> Running Sawfish - my gnome-panel died overnight leaving me 'panel-less'.
> The panel was not restartable from the mouse-menus. I was unable to
> access any useful WindowManager functions and exited the X-session.

Most useful window managers have a menu option somewhere for 'xterm',
if not 'gnome-terminal'. It's reached by right-clicking on the root
window (desktop, I think: I'm never sure of the different or the right
nomenclature) on mine (windowmaker) and I think that's pretty typical.

If you have an 'xterm', 'gnome-terminal', 'Terminal', 'Eterm', or
'rxvt' (which is a terminal window despite the name, honest) on your
window manager then click on that. In the window, to get a panel
restarted, type 'panel' or 'panel &' (I am not sure the latter is
necessary). To get at the control-center from a terminal window, 
it's 'gnomecc' I think.

Gnome also comes with the ability to do "run command" via a keybinding.
On my setup, that seems to be "mod1-F2", which translates to alt-F1,
apparently. I don't think I changed this, so presumably it's a default
at least for Red Hat's Gnome. You could try typing alt-F1 and putting 
'panel' as the command to run. You could try typing all manner of
things like that, come to think of it, just in case.

Finally, the 'all else fails' option is to copy your .gnome directory
somewhere else so you have a backup and then start deleting any files
which look like they have something to do with panels, and restarting
Gnome :) When you find the file that has an effect, move the rest
back. (This is much better than removing your entire .gnome directory
because you get to keep at least some of your settings.)

> Now If I restart my X-session , after displaying the splash screen I
> immediately get an error-box telling me the panel has seg-faulted. If 
> I close the error box it comes back again.

It sounds like the panel is respawning and crashing each time. I don't
know what might cause this. Perhaps one of the applets in it is 
crashing and bringing the rest of the panel down? (This shouldn't
happen, but perhaps it does.)

In which case, my suggestions about restarting the panel are not
so useful, and mucking about with the panel stuff in your .gnome
directory is the answer. There's a .gnome/panel which is an ascii
file containing a bunch of info, and a .gnome/panel.d/default/
which in my case carries details on over forty applets. Um. I didn't
know about all those :) 

> I am a bit stuck and would be grateful if anyone could pull me out of
> this hole!!

Well, those are a start. Even if they're wrong :)

Telsa