This is for the newbies in the Ubuntu Community. Sometimes we want to configure our panels on Ubuntu to give a nicer look. And the newbies often fail to do that as they want and may want to restore the default panel settings. Restoring the default panel setting on Ubuntu is pretty simple. Just run the following command in the terminal and you will get your default Ubuntu panels back.
sudo debconf gnome-panel
But this is not a permanent solution. To permanently enable your default panel configuration enter the following commands in the terminal sequentially.
gconftool –recursive-unset /apps/panel rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel pkill gnome-panel
Enjoy!!
N.B. Don’t worry if any of the command removes all your panel. The next command will restore it to default configuration.

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Thanks, this really saved my day.
rahman your solution to restore the panels does not work anymore here is the new solution
gconftool-2 –shutdown
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel
http://my.opera.com/ubuntunerd1/blog/
@Ubuntunerd, thanks for the nice url.
your welcome I update my blogs almost on a daily, and write more all the time. hopefully it can be of use to somebody
rahman your solution to restore the panels does not work anymore here is the new solution
Really?! Just worked for me just fine of a fully up-to-date Intrepid. Many thanks for this info.
It’s not the first time something wayward has killed my Applications Places System etc. and not the first machine this has happened on! A def ongoing bug in Ubuntu that is crying out for a fix!
#snip# rahman your solution to restore the panels does not work anymore here is the new solution #snip#
Really?! The original three line solution worked for me just fine on a fully up-to-date Intrepid. Although I may have sub-consciously re-started the X-Server after entering your commands – I forget!
(CTL+ALT+BACKSPACE). Many thanks for this info.
It’s not the first time something wayward has killed my Applications Places System etc. and not the first machine this has happened on! Disappearing Top-Menu items are a definite ongoing bug in Ubuntu that is crying out for a fix!
nice info.
i do what ubuntunerd say. and it works !!!
thanx
gconftool-2 –shutdown
rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel
pkill gnome-panel
worked for me on intrepid 8.10. Many thanks to nerdy ubuntunerd
BTW there should be two dashes before ‘shutdown’. Initially I had one dash and it gave me some stupid message!
We see this problem on our 8.04 workstations from time to time.
The problem seems to be that this file disappears: ~/.gconf/apps/panel/objects/menu_bar_screen0/%gconf.xml
I restore it from backup and add these lines in the \"object_id_list\" section to .gconf/apps/panel/general/%gconf.xml:
<li type=\"string\">
<stringvalue>menu_bar_screen0</stringvalue>
</li>
really valuable information thanx dude
Please help me!!! I am new to Ubuntu! using 10.04. Accidentally removed default main panel and all other panel. Now i want my default panel back, how to do it? r do i need to re-install again. Please help
hello Sivaram,
the problem is solved according the follow procedure. open a terminal shell and in the fileystem /usr/bin check than the ganome-panel file exist, if this exist, you can install cairo package and then tah this is installed, open the gmenu program, preferences > main menu , select the accesories menu, the panel item, then close the Main Menu. Here in the accesories group will appear the panel item, execute it and the menu default will back. Regards..
Worked great for me, ubuntu 10.04. Thanks for the post, I was pulling my hair out.
Awesome. Thanks a lot for the tip.
Instale ubuntu 10.04 y luego lo actualice a 10.10 (no se si esto tendrá algo que ver, pero este bug no lo encontre en la 10.04)
Al agregar un panel nuevo abajo del panel de los menues y al agregarle un acceso directo(para explicarlo con mas detalle) y al agregarle la propiedad ‘ocultar automaticamente’ este, al terminar de ocultarse hace que el SO se pare y no responda.
Lo que tuve que hacer fue de pelicula, mantuve el puntero del mouse pegado al borde superior y luego, cuando termino de cargar el panel de menues lo baje inmediatamente al otro panel que habia agregado (el que cuelga el SO al terminar de ocultarse).
Bueno, es un bug bastante sencillo de resolver y que frustra demaciado, sobre todo a mi que recien me inicio en Linux e instale el SO hace menos de 24 hs. -.-
Hi,
I tried that, but my panel is restored till I have not logged out. Once I am logging out, and then logging again, panels are not getting restored.
I am getting some command prompt message as “Session manager could not able to connect…”.
Let me know the solution for that.
This issue occurred when I upgraded my ubuntu.