gnome panel fails to appear at login (ubuntu 10.04)

[Chris Sharman]

Binary package hint: policykit-1-gnome

Using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
Bug associated with gnome itself, I think.
Newly installed 10.04, with /home partition inherited from 9.10.
Expect machine to auto-login on power-up with full width top bar offering Applications/Places/System etc.
Get auto-login, and expected background image, but the top bar is plain grey, maybe 40% the width of the screen with no words or icons anywhere. Nothing available to left-click.
Right clicking where the bar ought to be allows me to select properties, background, and change the top bar background - at which point it appears properly. I have to do that every time I power-up, and it's a pain.

I attach .xsession-errors which may be related - I'm not really sure.
If there's any other diagnostics I can run, or things to try, please let me know.

Thanks
Chris

[Gabe Gorelick (gabegorelick)]

Can you provide a screenshot of the bug? After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks in advance.

[Gabe Gorelick (gabegorelick)]

Thanks.

[Kalle Tuulos (kalle-tuulos)]

This error may have something in common with Bug #572550.

[Chris Sharman (sharman-chris)]

Is there anything I can try, or any additional information I can provide?
I'd really like to fix these symptoms - it's a pain to have to fix the panel every login before I can use it.

Thanks

[Casper Aleva (tonus)]

Same problem here on a fresh lucid install. Same symptoms. Changing something about the theme or background indeed "fixes" the panel somehow.
Attached my .xsession-errors file and the output of lspci -v.

[Chris Sharman (sharman-chris)]

Does this help? Here's mine for comparison.
Has anyone any suggestions please? This is too lame - I'm going to regress to 9.10 if I can't fix this.

Thanks
Chris

[Casper Aleva (tonus)]

Chris, your lspci helps, we now know we both are using a Matrox G400/450.
If we can get someone else to confirm this problem on the not very common
anymore Matrox graphics card, someone with knowledge about the driver might
be able to help.

[Kalle Tuulos (kalle-tuulos)]

In the other similar error (Bug #572550), I am having Matrox G550 video card.

[Chris Sharman (sharman-chris)]

Oh, it's hardware related? I'd assumed it was a config problem.