many problems after 9.04 upgrade

[angryhomer17]

I upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 to 9.04 a few days ago and am having some problems with 9.04.

1. The xfce task manager panel (panel 1) overlaps my system tray panel (panel 2). I've tried switching the position of the panels and changing what number panel they are, but that doesn't work. Is there a way to set a maximum size for a panel?

2. The network-manager has issues connecting to wireless networks. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have to manually ifup and ifdown. Even when I have a connection the nm-applet shows that I have no connection.

3. I can't ssh to my desktop. (ssh is installed) I can ssh from my desktop (8.10) to my laptop (9.10). I can't connect to my desktop webserver or connect to my desktop daap share from my laptop either.

Really the only thing that is better about the upgrade is a boot time at least twice as fast. Any help with any of the issues above would be appreciated.

[angryhomer17]

Ok, I decided to get Xubuntu 9.04 today...I found a cd-r that wasn't scratched :)
I wanted to try out ext4 too (that's my rationalization for the reformat, and I'm sticking with that)

Problem 2 seems to be fixed, although I have still seen a lot of people having issues with network-manager. Seems to be issues with the applet in the new version. Wicd is a good alternative.

Probelm 3 is fixed, I guess something really was messed up after upgrading twice. Stupid netowrking.

Problem 1 is still an issue, but I found a half-way ok workaround. I combined the task manager with panel 1, so I only have one panel now. The problem with that is I have nowhere to right-click on the desktop (to open new applications). I just need a little space for the mouse to click when I have windows maximized.

Another irratating issue is ALL CAPS titles when alt+tabbing. 9.04 is still better than 8.10 but it seems to introduce lots of little irratating issues. :(

If anyone knows how I can switch this ALL CAPS bull, please let me know. And the panel issue too.