This problem was posted to the Desktop formu on Dec 17, 2003. I posted it again a couple days ago and got no response. ------ All users, including root, cannot get the Gentoo panel to start, even a newly created user. After entering UserID and password the the desktop changes to the default Gnome blue and the cursor is visible, but the top and bottom panlel bars never load. After a few minutes, the 3 default desktop sometimes icons appear, as does an error window apperars with message: I've detected a panel already running, and will now exit" I've re-emerged every package with gnome in its name, and boonobo, libbonobo, and gdm. And as suggested in the forumn's Dec thread, I also tried moving ~/.gconf/apps/panel and ~/.gnome2/session out of the way and rebooted. No joy. It will start an Xsession desktop, but not a Gnome desktop. All was well until I rebooted a few days ago.
I'm assuming that by "gentoo panel" you mean the "gnome panel". Could you perhaps provide a version?
Do you have any hangovers left in /tmp ? Ie anything related to orbit or gconf?
no reply. closing
