when i log on under any user to my solaris machine, the java desktop system's panel does not appear, instead i get a plain grey panel at the top of the screen which is the gnome panel. i dont know how to get it back to how it was before, really, so any help would be appreciated.

i think i may have caused the problem, because the other day i used blastwaves pkg-get tool to update everything it had installed, and i recall that it wanted to update some part of gnome, i dont know if thats anything to do with it but thought it best to mention it.

i gave up trying to fix it and have reinstalled solaris
you live and learn, i won't make that mistake again next time.