Comment 34 for bug 43379

I'm having a similar problem. When I removed the Tomboy Notes applet from the panel, several other applets disappeared along with it: the network manager applet, the OpenOffice quicklaunch applet, and the Gmail Notifier applet. Using 'ps', I verified that all the applet processes were still running (including nm-applet and NetworkManager). My wireless network connection was still working, too. I rebooted, and the applets didn't reappear, but the computer nevertheless connected to my wireless network.

I then used Synaptic Package Manager to reinstall the network-manager and network-manager-gnome packages, thinking that this might get the applets to reappear, and apparently as a result, the wireless network connection was dropped. I rebooted the machine, but the applets have not reappeared, and the wireless network connection hasn't come back up again. All the applet processes are still running, though; they are just not being displayed. Unfortunately, this means I can't get my network connection working again, since as far as I can tell, the only way to do so is via the Network Manager applet which isn't displayed.