Gnome Panels Disappear - Ubuntu Forums

Gnome Panels Disappear - Ubuntu Forums: "Re: Gnome Panels Disappear
I also have experienced this problem after a system crash. The gnome menu was down and ALT-F2 was out, and restarting the desktop ALT-CTRL-BKSP returned me to the same place!

I could however create a launcher on the desktop via a right-click, the first of which I attached /usr/bin/nautilus and then I used it to browse the usr/bin folder (highly non-scientific I might add ). I finally noticed in the gnome-system-monitor (and I have seen this on another thread) that a gnome-panel job was chewing up 1 of the 2 CPUs I have. I killed the task, and re-ran gnome-panel and up popped the menu. It survived the next login so I'm happy for now.

Hope this helps."