Panel applets sometimes do not load on login

[Bradford Hovinen]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

Sometimes, when logging in, most of the panel applets do not load, leaving the desktop in a completely useless state. If I do Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to log out and then log back in, invariably none of the panel applets load. The only solution then is to reboot the computer. This problem appears totally at random, but it has happened more frequently of late.

I'm running Ubuntu Gutsy with all packages fully updated as of this date (2 July 2008).

The gnome-panel is version 2.22.2-0ubuntu1.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

thanks for your report, are you sure you're running Gutsy Gibbon? the panel version there should be 2.20.X not 2.22.X , Can you take an screenshot of the issue? also please attach your ~/.xsession-errors file, thanks.

[Bradford Hovinen (hovinen)]

Sorry, I got my versions mixed up. It's Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron.

I'll copy and attach my .xsession-errors file the next time the bug appears. It is impossible to predict when that will be. Taking a screenshot may be difficult, but I'll do what I can. Thanks.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

still an issue? can you try to reproduce the same with intrepid? thanks.

[Bradford Hovinen (hovinen)]

It hasn't happened much recently.

I did run into something like this recently. I tried to take a screenshot, but the panel was not responding. I therefore tried to find the screenshot utility using Nautilus, but before I was able to do so, the panel started to work again and the applets all loaded. Therefore, in this case at least, the problem was that the panel was stalling on something for a very long time (i.e. at least 30 seconds).

I am attaching the .xsession-errors file from that login, though, given the nature of the symptoms, I'm doubtful it will have the required information.

One difference now is that my laptop is always plugged in when I boot. When this was happening frequently, my laptop was not plugged in while booting. Thus the problem may be related to the power management applet.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you look if some process are still running which have been started before the session when you get the issue?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.