I've got a problem with one of my user accounts. When I log in (using the graphical login), the session hangs after the point where it shows the Metacity Window Manager icon on the startup info box.

The next thing to be loaded is the panel, and I know that there are various bugs with the panel. I've had trouble with it before.

No other user accounts are affected and it doesn't hang the whole machine. But I have to log in as root from the console and kill the X session to get back to the graphical login.

I'm running RedHat 8 on i686.

I think I can probably solve this by deleting the relevant files/folders that store the panel info. Anyone know which ones?

Any help appreciated so that I can log in!

I also have ran into the exact same problem. I'm running Redhat 8.0 and Gnome 2 and after I login with GDM, it hangs during the Metacity Window Manager part of the boot up. I'm not sure what would invoke something like this and I'm not sure how to fix it. If anyone knows or figures out how to fix it, please post here. I want to get back to Linux!!! Using Windows makes me feel yucky.

Simply force gnome to load default settings which will take care of whatever was hanging the start-up process.

To do this, open a command-prompt and type:
mv ~/.gnome ~/.gnome.backup; mv ~/.gnome2 ~/.gnome2.backup

Re-log in to your session and the problem should be fixed.

Sorry the above command should have been mv instead of cp. So type this instead:

mv ~/.gnome ~/.gnome.backup; mv ~/.gnome2 ~/.gnome2.backup

Sorry about that! (I fixed this in the above post)