no panel

[mikus bga com (Mikus Grinbergs)]

What I like to do is log in (graphic session) as a user [Gnome
seems fine]; then click  Applications -> System -> Remote Access ->
New Login  to start another graphic session.  Sometimes (but not
always) it tells me that 'Nobody' is already logged in on tty8
-- then when I click on 'create a new session anyway', that new
session is assigned to tty8, and in it Gnome works as expected.
But other times, that first click brings me directly to the log
in screen, and when I do log in (Gnome) I'm getting the error
message: "I've detected a panel already running, and will now
exit", and there are  NO  panels shown at the top or the bottom
of the screen.  [It used to work ok - I don't know if an update
to Gnome caused my problem, or if there has been an invalid file
left sitting somewhere.  Prior to that first click, I have  NOT
started any sessions, except for logging in as that first user.]

What should I look at to try to get out of this situation ?


mikus  (SuSE 10.1 64-bit;  Gnome 2.12 that came with SuSE, as
        updated from a "supplementary gnome repository" available
        for SuSE 10.1)