removed package and now launch bars are gone

[zarawesome]

I tried to remove some packages to make space for the gigantic TeX environment and now my navigation bars or launch bars or task bars or whatever are gone. All I have is the wallpaper and a couple of icons. I tried removing .gconf and .gnome and .gnome2 and .gconfd to no avail. An answer to any of the following questions would be nice:

1) How do I launch graphical applications without my taskbar?

2) How do I get my taskbar back? I don't remember what packages I uninstalled. Do I need them?

[UbuntuNerd]

hit Alt + F2 and type this commands all at once and hit run:

gconftool-2 --shutdown
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel

[zarawesome]

Alt+F2 doesn't work either.

[UbuntuNerd]

can you hit "Control+Alt+f1" and see what happens, to go back to your GUI hit "Alt+f7"