Classic gnome panel suddenly not working

[netopalis45]

That doesn't seem to be the problem. I changed the .compiz-1 files like your article said and nothing changed. When I log into Gnome Classic I can see all my desktop icons but the panels don't start. I can try starting them from a terminal but I still get the error "Segmentation Fault (core dumped)". I think it is a problem with the panel itself and not metacity or compiz but I can't figure out what. I am attaching a screenshot of what it looks like when I try to launch the panel from a terminal in Gnome Classic.

[kansasnoob]

What is the output of:

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION

[netopalis45]

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
gnome-classic

[QDR06VV9]

That doesn't seem to be the problem. I changed the .compiz-1 files like your article said and nothing changed. When I log into Gnome Classic I can see all my desktop icons but the panels don't start. I can try starting them from a terminal but I still get the error "Segmentation Fault (core dumped)". I think it is a problem with the panel itself and not metacity or compiz but I can't figure out what. I am attaching a screenshot of what it looks like when I try to launch the panel from a terminal in Gnome Classic.

I ran into something simular and was able to correct with this.
"killall gnome-panel"

[kansasnoob]

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
gnome-classic

That's the standard gnome classic session which uses compiz. Please log out, then select Gnome classic (no effects), and log back into the (no effects) session which uses metacity.

I think the problem with compiz is not so much compiz itself, but rather the compiz settings "hard-coded" in Unity specific settings.

Anyway, at least trying a (no effects) session to see what happens is easy and totally non-harmful

BTW if you run "echo $DESKTOP_SESSION" while logged into a session running metacity the output will be "gnome-fallback".

Rather off-topic but the Ubuntu GNOME Remix project has come a long ways in 12.10:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2064293

It doesn't even have compiz installed and uses mostly Gnome specific default settings so it should be possible to just install compiz and build your own settings using ccsm.

Of course it's NOT an official respin yet but hopefully it's a step in the right direction.

[netopalis45]

I ran "echo $DESKTOP_SESSION" in (no effects) and got "gnome-fallback" like you said but still no panels. I had seen rumours about a Gnome remix for 12.10 and am very excited. In my opinion Ubuntu should never have gone away from Gnome. Any idea when the Gnome remix will be out of beta?
I still don't think the problem is metacity or compiz related but with the panels themselves.

[netopalis45]

Here's another interesting tidbit, when I log into Gnome Classic with our without effects there is no right-click menu at all, and no Alt-F2 run dialogue. The only reason I can do anything is because yakuake is in my startup and automatically loads

[netopalis45]

I just did a complete reinstall to 11.10 and installed the slightly limited classic Gnome panel and then upgraded back to 12.04. At first this seemed like it fixed it but I am getting the same error again. I assumed that when you use apt-get purge it would remove all traces of a package but I was apparently wrong, ended up installing synaptic and completely removing everything that has anything to do with gnome-panel. Maybe this will work