Comment 48 for bug 572550

----------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE ADVISE

Should I file a separate bug report or should I add my details?
Same problem on 2 PC's, I have the same dynamics but
- no Matrox, I have an Nvidia binary on one and a generic FLOSS driver on the other.
- no panels at all, not partially showing panels.
- my very 1st account is not affected, while all subsequent ones are.

Since I have both working and borked accounts on the same machines I could provide comparisons.

Also, perhaps I can point to a filesystem metadata issue.
----------------------------------------------------------

I can reproduce the disappearance in 2 different ways:

1) Just LOGGING INTO the account.

Code:
adduser username
[etc.]

Login -> panels are there.
Logout. Login again. -> panels gone.

On 1st login, the user's home gets filled with the standard Gnome conffiles. Those Gnome files may be originally generated with a wrong configuration.

2) Don't even use the account, but back up and restore the user's home directory.

Code:
adduser user username
...
cp -avx /home/username /backup-path/username
rm -rf /home/username
cp -avx /backup-path/username /home/username

In this case, /home/username should be a straight copy of the original freshly generated /home/username WITHOUT any Gnome-added conffiles.

So a login SHOULD result in a full, fresh Gnome with the panels as on a 1st login.

Yet, even on the 1st login, panels gone.

IS IT FILESYSTEM METADATA?
This is germane to an account losing the panels after a crash / power failure, as that too may impede disk flushing and syncing.
A metadata change also happens during a successful login with panels.

However, my so far little-used but older personal account is fine. It has survived several login-logout cycles and even one instance of power failure without proper logout.