Re: I think I know what is clobbering my Gnome (Resolved)

[John Jason Jordan <johnxj comcast net>]

On Sun, 6 Dec 2009 11:45:24 -0800
John Jason Jordan <johnxj comcast net> dijo:

>Thanks for all the suggestions. I finally nailed it.
>
>After creating a new user and logging in the new user had metacity. I
>had renamed the new users .local folder to .local-original, then
>copied my .local folder to the new user. After logging out and back in
>again as the new user metacity failed to load. Therefore, I knew the
>problem was in my .local folder. 
>
>After much use of diff and trying things I focused
>on .local/share/applications/metacity.desktop. This file did not exist
>in the new user's original .local folder.
>
>I have no idea what rogue process created this file.

It just happened again, except that this time it was the gnome-panel
that failed to load on logging in instead of metacity.

Looking at the .local/share/applications folder, sure enough, there is
now a file gnome-panel.desktop. And the date stamp on it is January 14.
Thinking back, that was approximately the time I made a change to the
Applications menu. 

Specifically, I did not want K3b in Applications > Sound and Video but,
rather, in Applications > Accessories. So I right-clicked on
Applications and then on Edit Menus. In the Main Menu window I dragged
K3b from Sound and Video to Accessories, then deleted it from Sound and
Video. Apparently this caused the gnome-panel.desktop file to be
created, and something in it was keeping gnome-panel from loading.

As before with the metacity.desktop file, renaming gnome-panel.desktop
solved the problem.

There is another thread here recently initiated by David Harel "Windows
Decorations Lost ..." He reports a similar experience. 

Clearly we have a bug in the menu editor. I think it's time for me to
file bug report. However, I have some problems. First, the Gnome bug
tracker site is hopeless. I find it impossible to navigate and find
anything. More important, I cannot figure out the name of the menu
editor module. There is a Help button on the window, but it has no
About window to tell me what the name of the package is. I need to know
what it is called before I try to file a bug report.

Can someone point me in the right direction here?