[SOLVED] Minor problems with gnome panels in OS6

I've installed Zorin 6 Final, and followed Wolfman's very useful 'Final Post Installation Guide'.

I'm using the Gnome 2 format, and I've set the panels to auto-hide as I don't like having them on the screen permanently. They are working OK, but there are a few minor problems.

Firstly sometimes when I start the computer, the panels are not visible and cannot be accessed. This is a problem as it means I cannot access anything. If I log out and in again this usually solves the problem, but sometimes I have to do it repeatedly which is a bit of a nuisance.

Is there any reason for this, and any way of stopping it happening?

In the previous version of Zorin I was using (OS4 I think), I had the main program bar along the bottom with the open program bar across the top. With the open program bar not reaching the full way across the screen. The reason for this was so that when going to close or minimising programs with the controls in the top right corner, I wasn't getting interference from the bars poping up and offering to close the computer or anything.

I've managed to switch the top and bottom bars around OK, but I don't see anyway of stopping the open program bar (now at the top) from reaching righ across the screen. So I keep having it pop up when I go to close programs. Is there any way of reducing the size of this panel, so it doesn't reach across the top right of the screen?

Also, when I try and switch programs by clicking on the open program bar icons, it sometimes shows a blank screen, then the original program, before finally displaying the program I'm aiming for. It works in the end, just not very smoothly.

Finally, I would mention that when I tried to remove the 'Indicator' icon from the panel ( I don't use social networks), I lost a whole set of icons making it difficult to access and control printers, log on/off the internet, etc. So it's maybe worth pointing out that these items are linked, so deleting one takes out the lot.

None of these are serious problems, and I have limited technical knowledge, but I thought I'd mention them in case anyone has any useful suggestions.

Many thanks, Kernoclive

Hi,

have you fully updated your system??:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247

Regards Wolfman

Thank you swarfendor437 & Wolfman for your replies.

The system should be fully updated. Originally, I was also having problems putting ticks in the Synaptic Packages Manager 'Updates' boxes, and having lost useful icon from the gnome panel, I decided to re-install and make a fresh start. Second time around, I followed your 'Final Post Install Guide', including the link to 'Updating Software & Repairing Broken Files' as carefully as I could, so I'm pretty sure it's fully updated.

Doing that solved the problem with the Synaptic updates, and brought back the icons I'd accidentally deleted from the panel. The other issues remained though.

I'm not sure what to take a screenshot of. The panels are on auto-hide, so they disappear, leaving a screenshot of an empty desktop save for Thunderbird, Firefox and Deconf-tools icons, which I doubt will help much. The panels I'm talking about are the bars that appear at the top and bottom of the Gnome 2 desktop after installation.

I've set them to auto-hide, and switched them round (top to bottom/bottom to top), but no other changes. I did try changing the expand option (on the first installation) but it didn't stop them extending the full width of the screen. This means that when I go to close/minimise a program by moving the mouse cursor to the top right corner, the panel pops up and gets in the way. Which wasn't happening on my previous version of Zorin as the top panel didn't extend the full way across to the top right corner.

Moving the mouse more slowly avoids the panel popping up, but I tend to forget, and keep switching workspaces (or shutting down before I switched the panels around).

I expect the panels (sometimes) not popping up at all on startup is a fault with the start up process, with little that can be done about it, but if I had a smaller top panel before, hopefully there are setting that will make that possible again.

Thanks for your help,

Kernoclive

Further to my last posting, I've now managed to reduce the size of the panel, by using the expand option in properties. When I tried this approach originally it just crashed the panel, but it's working fine now.

I'm not sure why the change, but the whole program is working better since I re-installed. I've even found an option to re-instate the panel icons I'd accidentally deleted before, and I'm sure it wasn't there previously. I expect I'd done something wrong on the first installation, but it's working OK now, so problem solved.

Kernoclive