GNOME Menu gone missing
 

Hi all, I'm running OpenSUSE 10.2 with Gnome,and about 3 weeks ago, the Gnome menu button started acting strangely. I'd start my PC and the desktop would load, with the panel at the bottom, but no menu - that is, the equivalent of the Start button ("Computer") was missing. Then after seven minutes, the button would appear and all would be well.

Today, I decided to look into it, so right-click on the button once it appeared then start looking at properties. That gave me the chance to add a new menu to the panel, so I tried that. But then it wouldn't save what I'd done, so I quit, which popped up an error message "Panel encountered a problem loading OAFIID:GNOME_Mainmenu". That gave me the chance to delete the applet, which I took to be the bit I'd added, but no, the menu button doesn't come up at all now.

This is a real pain - no menu button means I can only start apps for which there's something on my desktop! Glad I happen to have an html file sitting there so I can start Firefox! But I can't get to a command prompt except by ctrl-alt-F1.

You advice very welcome, thanks.

Stuart

Right click on the panel, select Add to Panel..., scroll down and highlight Main Menu, click the Add button. You should have your menu back.

GNOME Menu missing
 

Aha! Easy when you know how, thanks very much for that.

Now I'm working normally again, I still have a long delay before I can click on the menu. That is, the area on the left of the panel that should contain "Computer" is blank for several minutes after start-up. On Windows, I'd go into task manager to see what processes were preventing the menu from appearing, but I don't know how to do that on Linux. I know about "top", but don't understand what it's telling me, and of course before the menu appears, I can't start a terminal! I can use ctrl-alt-F1 to go to a virtual console, so if someone can suggest a command that would diagnose the problem from there, I'll have a go.

Stuart

Check your system for GNOME System Monitor or install it. It displays system information similar to the task manager except there is a bit more information provided by default. You'll still need to wait for your menu to start the System Monitor of course.

Really, top is quicker. Check out section 2.5.2 for a pretty decent and quick tutorial --> http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l.../admin-primer/