Loss of Panel after upgrading to 10.10

Mmmm maybe worth trying this:

boot on each account

Press ALT+F2
It should offer you to run an application
type "gnome-terminal"
It should open a terminal

then type:
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/panel
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel

It should reset your panel settings. If they don't appear, logout, login and tell us :)

Francois,

Thank you for your help but ALT+F2 has no affect at all. There is absolutely no response.

John

Ok, there are always solutions !

If you right click on the desktop, do y ou have a menu ? Can you create a launcher ?

I can get a menu when I right click, but selecting "Create Launcher..." gives no response.

Just one other point. After upgrading to Ubuntu 10.10 I uninstalled Evolution as I use Thunderbird as my e-mailer. Could this have wiped out other necessary files?

I can get to the file system by creating a new folder on the desktop and using that. Could I invoke any program to help solve the problem?

Bingo.
I think you are right, to uninstall Evolution removed some linked softwares...

An easy way to solve the problem if you can connect your computer to the internet using a wire:

boot, press ESC to get the boot menu (or hold the shift key, one of those two should show the menu), select the "recovery mode" item in the menu, let it boot, it should show you a menu with various option, including one similar to "command line with network", choose it, it will start Ubuntu in text mode

then type this:

apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

It should reinstall what is missing

for some dumb reason, evolution is a dependency of gnome-panel

all you have to do is reinstall gnome-panel and it will be fine

Neither the esc or shift keys seem to get me into Ubuntu to get to the point when I can select "recovery mode". Are there any other ways of getting there?

boot to normal desktop
Press ALT+CTRL+T
run:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install gnome-panel

Should be fine

Didn't know this shortcut... :) NIce to have thought, thanks actionparsnip!

Actionparsnip, will it reinstall the indicator-applet ? Don't you think it would be safer to reinstall ubuntu-desktop, this way all the default packages will be there...

All that is missing is gnome panel so thats all that needs installing. Only installing gnome panel also involves installing a whole lot of apps less, some of which the user may have removed due to drive space constraints.

It's not any easier to run:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
as it is to run:
sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

So I fail to see where you get "easier" from....

I was refering to indicator-applet. I think this one is nice to have, but I don't know if it works with Thunderbird.

Thanks both. Nearly there. The panel has been recovered except that the account name and the close-down icon is missing on the right of the panel.

You can reset the panel to the default settings by typing this in a terminal I think

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/panel
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel

Thank you very much, that sorted it. I am very grateful.

Who would have thought that Evolution would be a vital part of the gnome desktop?

Well, it's deeply integrated, more than any other email software: the calendar applet displays the appointments you have in Evolution Calendar for instance. The indicator applet displays the new emails counter as well as some shortcuts. It's also integrated in Nautilus with the "send to" option. But that's still not a reason to remove Gnome panel if you want to uninstall Evolution ;)