Panel - Reset to Default

How to Reset the Panel to Default (for the end user)

Most of our end users have a very hard time with the command line. On the phone the following would be the easiest to explain:

If the user has access to Places from the top panel...(if "Places" has disappeared...please see below)

Navigate to the user's home folder

  go to Places -> Home Folder

Show hidden files

  go to View -> show hidden files

Navigate to the apps folder

  go to .gconf -> apps

Find and delete the panel folder

Log out and back in again, or restart the computer

On reboot or log out and in the panels will be restored to the base default (all original plugins in original positions)

IF PLACES IS NOT ACCESSIBLE FROM THE TOP PANEL...

  Start Nautilus (file browser) by pressing the ALT and F2 keys at the same time
  Type "nautilus" in the Run Application window.

Show hidden files

  go to View -> show hidden files

Navigate to the apps folder

  go to .gconf -> apps

Find and delete the panel folder

Log out and back in again, or restart the computer

On reboot or log out and in the panels will be restored to the base default (all original plugins in original positions)

COMMAND LINE VERSION OF THE ABOVE...

How to Reset the Panel to Default

Open a Terminal and type the following

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/panel (All panels will disappear)
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel 

In case that didn't do anything

You can do this if your panels/networking applet are really messed up. This is a "complete reset" of your panel settings. It reinstalls the panel applications and resets everything to default at the end.

BEFORE YOU RUN IT, make sure the networking applet will give you the option to change around wired connections. Open:

/etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

Now find:

[ifupdown]
managed = false

And change the second line to:

managed = true

And make sure nm-applet will run on login. Make sure this command has an entry in the list of startup programs:

nm-applet --sm-disable   (System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications)

Then run the following: (note that a "gk" preceeding sudo was removed as it was discovered to inhibit the process. Rhean 18:34, 13 October 2011 (UTC))

sudo apt-get purge gnome-panel indicator-applet-session network-manager-gnome
sudo apt-get install gnome-panel indicator-applet-session network-manager-gnome
sudo restart network-manager
gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel

To get network manager to show up as a separate applet (useful in restoring it to the panel under some versions of ubuntu), do:

sudo apt-get install indicator-session indicator-applet-session