the following error occured when i logged in user:

Error activating XKB configuration.
Probably internal X server problem.

X server version data:
The X.Org Foundation
60801000

If you report this situation as a bug, please include:
- The result of xprop -root | grep XKB
- The result of gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/xkb

Also:

Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See gnome.org/projects/gconf/[/url] for information. (Details - 1: IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-manjush/lock/ior' not opened successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory 2: IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-manjush/lock/ior' not opened successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory)

And:n error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for Nautilus. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

needed assistance........is there is any other way to logout or shut down without the panel and start menu other than shutting it manually.

ctrl+alt+bcksp will log you out and ctrl+alt+del will reboot the computer. or u can open a terminal and type shutdown -now

thanks bosewicht,
but i still am not able to figure out why things are not loading properly or what to do with that error regarding gconfd. i went to the specified website.....gnome.org/projects/gconf and got the file, but still i get this configuration error.