Xubuntu Lost Desktop Panels

I was playing around with my Xubuntu installation again and somehow managed to make my top and bottom desktop control panels disappear. This was very frustrating as I couldn’t find a simple right click solution to bring them back.

I quick surfed over to the Ubuntu forums and found a two step process to get the Gnome/Ubuntu panels back. I simply changed the Gnome part to XFCE4 and ran the program command and bam – my panels were back. Here is the command in Xubuntu and Ubuntu.

1) In Xubuntu hit the Alt-F2 keys together to bring up the “Run Program” window.

     Now type in the following and click run: xfce4-panel

2) In Ubuntu the process is identical, except you insert gnome instead of xfce4.

     After hitting Alt-F2, type in the following and hit enter: gnome-panel