How To Restore The Original Panel And Menu Bar in Ubuntu

Posted on June 23, 2008 by Quyen Nguyen

New Solution

Note: The old solution no longer worked for me, I found a new solution and posted it here.

Open Terminal: Ctrl+Shift+T

Execute these three commands:

gconftool-2 --shutdown
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel

The panels should reappear without logging out.

Old Solution

Note: This no longer works for me, but I leave it here for those who would like to try. After all, this solution saved me once, and it once worked just fine.

Well, I deleted my top panel by accident today. When I create a new one, some of the original items such as wire network connection, PMC volume control, notification area, date and time… are not there any more. Some of them are no where to be found in the items listed for adding new items onto panels. Anyhow, a quick Google search let me to the solution, found here and quoted below.

Open Terminal: Ctrl+Shift+T

Execute these three commands:

gnome-session-remove gnome-panel
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/panel
gnome-panel &

Then logout and log back in, or restart you X server with CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE , everything should be fine.

Note: During this process, all panels, including the top and bottom, will be deleted and restore to the default settings. So, if you delete the bottom panel, this also restores it.

Filed under: Howto, Other Applications, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , , |

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55 Responses

  1. Cambiar el menu de Ubuntu por un boton « Ubuntu Life, on June 23, 2008 at 5:21 pm said:

    […] recargar la informacion del panel. Y si acaso lo que queremos es volver a la situacion original del panel. Los comandos […]

    Reply
  2. Lee, on July 23, 2008 at 7:15 am said:

    Thats great. But what are the keyboard shortcuts to start a terminal, i cant find those anywhere.

    Reply
  3. ma65p2004, on July 23, 2008 at 3:05 pm said:

    Lee,

    I think the Ctrl+Shift+T is the default keyboard shortcut to open your terminal.

    You can also add terminal on your panel as a quick shortcut like in windows.

    Reply
  4. Lee, on July 29, 2008 at 5:45 am said:

    Ok, thanks. Next issue.
    I type each command, hitting enter after each command. After the last command I get a blinking, black cursur with no confirmation….I log out and in and still same problem…

    Reply
  5. ma65p2004, on July 29, 2008 at 3:15 pm said:

    Lee,

    Thanks for coming back.

    I found another solution.

    In terminal, enter these three commands:

    gconftool-2 --shutdown
    rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
    pkill gnome-panel

    I hope this helps.

    Reply
  6. j0sh818, on August 7, 2008 at 3:44 am said:

    hi there! thanks for this info. really helped. but i got one problem though. my network monitor applet didn’t appear in the panel.

    any ideas? thanks again.

    Reply
  7. ma65p2004, on August 7, 2008 at 3:43 pm said:

    j0sh818,

    I never have the same problem before. I will search for the solution soon. However, at the mean time, what you can do is put a network monitor on your panel:

    Right-click on the panel => Select “Add to panel…” => select “Network Monitor”

    This might help you for now.

    Reply
  8. goliar, on October 13, 2008 at 8:16 pm said:

    Excellent! This is what I wanted to know. Worked for me. Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Saifur, on October 29, 2008 at 9:25 am said:

    Nice Post…. I was just looking for this and this worked.

    Reply
  10. kikin, on December 16, 2008 at 2:53 pm said:

    oh man thank you this really help me a lot nice job

    Reply
  11. Hugo Estrada, on January 28, 2009 at 4:50 pm said:

    You. Are. My. Hero.

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
  12. ttt, on March 11, 2009 at 9:50 am said:

    what if I cannot run terminal in no possible way. I cannot access top nor bottom menu. I have deleted all the folder in .home I am trying already 2 hours to solve this but nothing works.
    CTRL+ALT+T = NO
    ALT F2 = NO

    Reply
  13. Noel Murphy, on April 19, 2009 at 10:37 pm said:

    I deleted my bottom panel desktop panel by mistake. I tried a few other suggestions but nothing worked. When I tried yours it worked perfectly. No re-boot or anything needed my panel came back along with the trash can.
    Your just wonderful… thank you very much.

    Posted on June 23, 2008 by Quyen Nguyen
    New Solution
    Open Terminal: Ctrl+Shift+T

    Execute these three commands:

    gconftool-2 –shutdown
    rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
    pkill gnome-panel

    Reply
    • Allen, on September 29, 2011 at 4:18 pm said:

      I had to use Ctrl + Alt + T and it worked a treat.

      Thanks for the info, it saved a lot of cursing and frustration 🙂

      Reply
  14. Ade Safdani, on April 28, 2009 at 11:53 am said:

    great! it works, many thanks Quyen Nguyen

    Reply
  15. nikhil, on May 23, 2009 at 9:24 am said:

    thanks a lot
    works like a charm

    Reply
  16. Shaked, on August 1, 2009 at 11:32 am said:

    Thank you very much!
    The solution solved my problem.

    Reply
  17. jabba, on January 7, 2010 at 10:48 am said:

    thank you! 🙂

    Reply
  18. BulletProofPoet, on February 16, 2010 at 8:16 am said:

    Thanks for the post! Just got me out of an unfortunate situation!

    Cheers

    BPP

    Reply
  19. prashanth, on February 17, 2010 at 2:09 pm said:

    Dude ur fucking awesome..it worked!!

    Reply
  20. Paul, on April 15, 2010 at 10:08 pm said:

    Great, lost it by accident! Works well!

    Reply
  21. Coconut, on May 8, 2010 at 5:23 am said:

    I cannot express what I feel right now. THANK YOU, THANK YOU AND THANK YOU!!!

    Reply
  22. kooosh, on May 14, 2010 at 12:58 pm said:

    Thanks a lot for this! Worked like a charm.

    Reply
  23. shaneonabike, on May 21, 2010 at 3:00 pm said:

    This is great thanks heaps for providing this information!

    Reply
  24. blegs38552, on May 22, 2010 at 1:55 am said:

    Worked fine for me in Ubuntu 10.4.

    Thanks – Ubuntu community rules.

    Reply
  25. Michael, on May 24, 2010 at 2:41 am said:

    Those commands worked for me and I have my panel back.
    Way cool !

    Thanks,

    -ml

    Reply
  26. brett, on May 29, 2010 at 5:55 pm said:

    THANKS BRO! BEEN LOOKING FOR ABOUT 15 MIN. NOW AND YOURS WORKED INSTANTLY!! GOOD JOB!

    Reply
  27. k_, on June 8, 2010 at 7:52 pm said:

    Thank you!

    Worked great in Lucid.

    Reply
  28. Donal Trainor, on June 23, 2010 at 8:37 pm said:

    Thanks for that solution, I thought i was up shit creek there!!! Think we were all on the same boat lol. Ubuntu FTW!

    Reply
  29. mike L, on July 16, 2010 at 11:51 am said:

    dude, you’re a friggin lifesaver — thanks

    Reply
  30. Cambiar boton del menu de Ubuntu | Virtuazone's Blog, on July 26, 2010 at 3:13 pm said:

    […] recargar la informacion del panel. Y si acaso lo que queremos es volver a la situacion original del panel. Los comandos […]

    Reply
  31. Larry boy, on July 28, 2010 at 5:46 pm said:

    WHOOOO!!!! Thank you very much :-‘)

    Reply
  32. Harvey, on August 4, 2010 at 10:54 pm said:

    Those three commands work lik a champ. But it is pretty boring to type this in every time I restart the computer. Where can I put this command so it runs by itself every time?

    Reply
  33. Praveen Pious, on August 12, 2010 at 5:59 am said:

    It worked with my Ubuntu 10.04 installation.

    Thanks 🙂

    Reply
  34. harris, on September 27, 2010 at 9:01 pm said:

    thanks for the tips.
    worked with out a hitch on lucid.

    Reply
  35. Remus, on October 2, 2010 at 6:16 pm said:

    Thank you…this is working just fine !!!

    Reply
  36. Parth, on October 3, 2010 at 4:00 pm said:

    thnx a lot.. its awesome..! works perfectly alright 🙂

    Reply
  37. NusaTV.com - Online TV Streaming, on December 10, 2010 at 6:30 pm said:

    Nice Post…. I was just looking for this and this worked 🙂

    Reply
  38. Dilum, on December 22, 2010 at 6:17 pm said:

    Thank You….:)

    Reply
  39. sosmartis, on December 22, 2010 at 7:38 pm said:

    tnk u i am greatful bak bak

    Reply
  40. Surajit Panja, on December 23, 2010 at 11:19 am said:

    Thank you …First one work properly

    Reply
  41. Anna, on January 4, 2011 at 6:08 pm said:

    When I did this it deleted everything I had on the computer. Files, pictures, music.

    Don’t know what went wrong, just a warning.

    Reply
  42. chauhan007, on March 10, 2011 at 9:49 pm said:

    Excellent! . Thank you!

    Reply
  43. Eduardo Ottaviani, on April 2, 2011 at 5:39 pm said:

    Thanks for the solution.

    It was very helpful and it worked just fine on my ubuntu 10.10.

    Tks again.

    Reply
  44. jman, on June 1, 2011 at 4:32 am said:

    awesome, worked and got me out of a very stuck place!

    Reply
  45. nakul ponkshe, on June 8, 2011 at 10:35 am said:

    Thanks for the post

    Nakul

    Reply
  46. Algernonymous, on June 9, 2011 at 8:48 pm said:

    Thank you so much!

    Reply
  47. ubuntuKid, on September 7, 2011 at 3:58 am said:

    It works great. Save me a lot of time. Thanks!!

    Reply
  48. chris, on September 26, 2011 at 8:43 pm said:

    work perfectly!! thnks a lot!

    Reply
  49. Jen, on October 25, 2011 at 2:12 pm said:

    New solution worked like a charm for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    Reply
  50. How To Restore The Original Panel And Menu Bar in Ubuntu « ma65p « Sandeepbhalla's Blog, on November 7, 2011 at 12:18 pm said:

    […] via How To Restore The Original Panel And Menu Bar in Ubuntu « ma65p. […]

    Reply
  51. Restoring Original Panel & Menu Bar « Sandeepbhalla's Blog, on November 7, 2011 at 1:41 pm said:

    […] via How To Restore The Original Panel And Menu Bar in Ubuntu « ma65p. […]

    Reply
  52. wwyee, on December 26, 2011 at 1:56 pm said:

    can’t work..top edge panel lost

    Reply
  53. bilal, on February 24, 2012 at 5:37 pm said:

    it did not work . what should i do

    Reply

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