Comment 5 for bug 138902

I can confirm this problem, and with a possibly enlightening variation.
This is using 2 Tecra 8000 @ 366 & 400 MHz, 256 MiB.
I've never seen the problem with 7.06.
With 7.10, I have seen it consistently in a dozen or so LiveCD boots.
With both 7.10 CR and release.
Except once, at which time I quit the idea I was facing a feature.
But I have seen it twice in HDD sessions too !!!
(Not quite sure the reason is the same, though)

Once it happened, the situation looks "sticky".
The problem survives further logout-logins, they will miss the panels.
Launching ps-missing xfce4-panel stops the problem indeed.

During CD boot, this is what I observe.
The first, upper panel background is first drawn.
Then the Desktop background (standard) is drawn on top of it.
(During HDD boot, Desktop background is drawn well before.)
Following which there is no further signs of xfce4-panel.

What would make CD boots fail on one machine & succeed on another
and then make the next version do the opposite?
Let alone the same CD fail and then succeed on the same machine?
Would it be a time race condition?

Are #138902 and 53897 the same bug?
If yes,
- "dapper" should be removed from any title
- severity of what happened to happen to me should be higher

Being reproducible, it should be rather easy to correct.
We already know that starting of xfce4-panel later does it.