workspace bar gone in Ubuntu 11.04

Asked by Commodore Hairy

I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04. The bottom bar to restore minimized applications and to click between windows disappeared. In previous versions I entered the following to fix this: gconftool -- recursive-unset /apps/panel then rm -rf ~/ .gconf/apps/panel
when rm -rf ... was entered the system said 'cannot remove gconf. I then entered pkill gnome-panel.
Now most of my applications are inaccessible. Crossover and Quickbooks have disappeared. Evolution has lost its settings and my email is inaccessible.
Is there any way to reverse what I have done? I did not make a backup.

If possible please email a reply to <email address hidden>

thanks

Ron Steele

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Eliah Kagan
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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said :
#1

The default user interface in Ubuntu 11.04 is Unity. It doesn't have a bar at the bottom. It has a launcher on the left side of the screen, which enables you to run programs, switch between running programs, and search for and open files and programs, and which contains the workspace switcher, which enables you to switch workspaces easily (but I suspect that workspace switching isn't really the functionality you're missing).

"Now most of my applications are inaccessible."

Is that the case since you upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04, or since you ran those commands?

If the problem is that you don't know how to run your programs using the new interface, there are two solutions to this problem:

(1) Play around with the interface and/or read the help topics on it, to become familiar with it.

(2) Switch back to the old interface, which is still fully supported in Ubuntu 11.04. One way to do this is to select "Ubuntu Classic" for the session type on the login screen (you can select your session type after you've specified your username, while you're being asked for your password).

On the other hand, if running those commands somehow changed things, then we'll have to investigate this further; in that case, or if you need any further help using Unity or switching back to the classic desktop, please post a reply.

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Commodore Hairy (rhsteele) said :
#2

Eliah,
thank you for replying to my query.
I had access to my files in Unity until I typed in the commands indicated above. Now 'Documents' is empty. Even though Crossover is shown when I go to Menu when listing all my files when I go to 'Applications' in the side Launcher Crossover and the programs run with it, especially Quickbooks, which had been on the Unity Desktop as well.

The workspace switcher in the Launcher is still there and works but is clumsy -- using it requires more mouse clicks and is not as convenient. I was trying to get the 4 screens on the bottom again but this has apparently wiped out almost all my files.

Ron Steele

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Commodore Hairy (rhsteele) said :
#3

Further to the above.

 I changed to Ubuntu Classic using 'System Settings" . Crossover is accessible now but it is empty -- shows no applications. Quickbooks is missing from Crossover. All my other files are missing --- Documents, Pictures, Music. I have a dual boot system. Evolution Mail content and settings are also missing. The boot drive containing Windows 7 appears in 'Places' but the second drive (a separate hard drive) seems to have disappeared completely.

This happened after I typed in the commands indicated previously. The drives that appear are 'Files System', Floppy Drive, System res, and 320 GB File. The 320GB is Windows. Files System appears to be Linux but I cannot identify or find my document files or other files mentioned above

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said :
#4

You said you ran the command:

        rm -rf ~/ .gconf/apps/panel

At the time, I assumed you meant you had run the (correct) command:

        rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

But if you really did run the first command (with the space between the / and the .), then you have deleted all or most of the contents of your home directory. You can check to see what you ran by opening a Terminal window and running:

        history | grep -v grep | grep 'rm -rf'

(I recommend you copy and paste that command, to avoid typos.)

If you did run the command with a space, and you have any important files that aren't backed up, then you should immediately shut down your computer (not with the power button--you can still use the shutdown menu like usual), to mitigate the risk of the deleted files being permanently and irretrievably overwritten. Then see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery. (You can work from this by booting your machine from an Ubuntu live CD, but do *not* download the .iso file while in your Ubuntu system, as downloading such a big file would very likely permanently overwrite some or all of your lost data! Using your Windows system to download and burn it is OK.)

Some things, like your web browser bookmarks, might be a nuisance to lose, but might not be worth trying to recover. I recommend you only exert effort to recover data if you have documents that are not backed up and that are important and not easily replaced.

If you do have backups of everything important, then you can just create a new user account (click the power icon on the upper-right corner of the screen, then click System Settings..., then under System, click "Users and Groups") and switch to using that user account. (Or if you want advice on recreating the missing system-provided files and folders in your home directory, so you can keep using the same user account, feel free to post a reply requesting that information.)

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Commodore Hairy (rhsteele) said :
#5

thanks for your answer. Using another hard drive I tried to recover the files on the erased 11.04 Ubuntu drive. I used a downloaded copy of Knoppix and ran Foremost from another hard drive. I have an operating Pinguy system on another drive as well. The recovery programs only provide access to intact files otherwise inaccessible because the partition/directory structure is compromised.
I in fact did run the command rm -rf ~/ .gconf/apps/panel with the space. This erased all my Documents files and my Crossover files. Is there a recovery program that rebuilds erased files and not just partitions and directories? The directories and partitions are intact but they all show as empty.
I have access to my older files on another drive running an older version of Ubuntu but I need access to some recent files not backed up.
Your support is most generous. I don't know if this is allowed but I'd be happy to pay for your assistance or contribute to Launchpad.
Commodore Hairy (Ron Steele)

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said :
#6

You ran Foremost -- did that not enable you to recover any files?

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Commodore Hairy (rhsteele) said :
#7

No, Eliah, Foremost ran for several hours but the destination drive, a new physical drive which I formatted for the purpose to ext4 and to which I was able to save files, showed no files when Foremost was completed.

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Best Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said :
#8

I recommend you post a new question about the problem you're having recovering files. This question is really about gnome-panel (its title is "workspace bar gone in Ubuntu 11.04" which is not obviously about data loss), and as a result many of the people who might be able to help you with data recovery problems are likely not seeing it. Since the original problem in solved in the sense that you know what happened, you could mark this as Solved (after creating the new question).

If you want me to subscribe myself to the new question, and help out with it to the degree to which I am able, you can post a comment here with a link to the new question.

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Commodore Hairy (rhsteele) said :
#9

Eliah

thanks for the advice
The new question is tagged as 159298
this may give you or someone else the ability to recommend a different approach
Commodore

Revision history for this message
Commodore Hairy (rhsteele) said :
#10

Thanks Eliah Kagan, that solved my question.