Gnome-Panel has No Option to Reset Panel to Default in Its GUI

[Lonnie Lee Best]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

My Gnome-Panel got corrupted do to this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+bug/476151

Why is there no option, by right-clicking the top-panel, to reset the panel back to a "fresh installation default" state?

I know there are other ways to do this, perhaps at the command line, but this is something that needs to be in the GUI.

Normally, when this happens, I do the following steps

(1) Go to the "Places" menu.
(2) Click on "Home Folder".
(3) Press Ctrl-H, to display hidden folders.
(4) Navigate to then delete this folder: /home/UserName/.gconf/apps/panel
(5) Logout, then log back in.

No new user could be expected to know this, so this is usability bug.

Furthermore, one negative aspect of this method of repairing the panel, is that I lose any launchers and applets I've added to the panel previously. So, the reset feature I'm proposing should provide (by default probably), the ability to maintain the list of launchers and applets you created previous, but put them in the "fresh install type order".

If you have any question, you my call me (toll free)
http://www.lonniebest.com/Phone/

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. The issue is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME)

[komputes (komputes)]

I have linked to the upstream bug:

The proper way to reset panels is to use the following commands in a terminal:
$ gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/panel
$ rm -fr ~/.gconf/apps/panel
$ pkill gnome-panel

There are two brainstorms for this feature (please vote):
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/10436/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/13427/

There is also a community project/script which can save/restore and reset panels:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/09/how-to-restore-default-gnome-panels-in-ubuntu/