I have finally made it back to 1 of my desktops after probably 3 mos. & now gnome panel/taskbar is missing. Also since this problem has occured
I can't close windows because they don't have the buttons to close them. I can only close windows that have a menu bar, using "File>>Quit".
I also can't click on w3indow to bring it forward, if you notice in the attachment there are actually 4 windows open, nautilus has 2 running, gnome-teminal & iceweasel. Anyway the 2 nautilus windows when clicked on will not show themselves & what is really funny is I can move terminal & nautilus file manager but while moving them by dragging them they remain behind iceweasel.

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Hi:

I'd try uninstalling the gnome panel with the --purge remove cmd and than try reinstalling it.

Do you think an update or a upgrade caused the panel and taskbar to go south?

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80609
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1685821
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...zy-4175463451/

HTH-

I,m thinking that it has something to do with /usr on separate partition so I may have to merge it with root, since everything that is affected is in /usr/bin, but I will try your suggestion

Yeah, merging with root may work but I'm not sure as I've never tried it.

If you can't get the windows to close you can also try running this cmd and get the pid # and use the kill cmd.

Than once you have the pid# than run:

I'll be getting back to that machine probably this weekend, at that point I'm going to merge /usr to / and post back.

Ok-

Finally got back to my computer with missing panel.
I moved /usr to / but it didn't resolve issue.
I was able to get to terminal thru file manager, where I could update my system & it repaired itself.

Glad to hear that updating your system fixed the issue.

Any suspicions/clues as to what made the panel vanish to begin with?

I probably was in the middle of an update & had to shut machine down, to save energy.
I can't leave it on because when I leave I may be gone for a week or 2 before returning home. It's hard living in 1 town & having work 60 miles away.

Ok I can see where shutting down in the middle of an update could of created a generation for the panel to go out.

Glad it's working now for you.

That's quite a commute for your work.
Have you considered moving closer to your work?