Max wrote:

> if i uninstall and reinstall gnome-desktop
> won't i lose all my settings. and is it gnome-desktop that i have to
> reinstall or is it gnome-panel or both

.... what i'd do is rename all references (to gnome) in the ~
directory and restart gnome. then you can copy over the data
you need in those renamed subdirs to the newly-created subdirs
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
Peace, n.: In international affairs, a period of cheating
between two periods of fighting. "The Devil's Dictionary"

thanks for your reply. i'm not sure what you mean. can u explain in a
bit more detail.

Max wrote:

> thanks for your reply. i'm not sure what you mean. can u explain in a
> bit more detail.

.... what i'd do is rename all references (to gnome) in the ~
directory and restart gnome. then you can copy over the data
you need in those renamed subdirs to the newly-created subdirs

open a terminal (window or screen) and 'cd' to your home,
then get a list of gnome stuff, as in the following:

mtobler@stimpy:~> cd ~
mtobler@stimpy:~> ls -al | grep gno
drwx------ 7 mtobler users 296 2003-07-03 06:39 .gnome
drwxr-xr-x 2 mtobler users 104 2003-07-12 12:16 .gnome-desktop
drwx------ 7 mtobler users 312 2003-10-12 10:19 .gnome2
drwx------ 2 mtobler users 48 2003-01-06 20:21 .gnome2_private
drwx------ 2 mtobler users 48 2003-06-20 19:07 .gnome_private
-rw-r--r-- 1 mtobler users 143 2003-07-12 12:09 .gtkrc-1.2-gnome2

now, you want to rename those, using the 'mv' command

mtobler@stimpy:~> mv .gnome .gnome_old
mtobler@stimpy:~> mv .gnome-desktop .gnome-desktop_old
mtobler@stimpy:~> mv .gnome2 .gnome2_old
mtobler@stimpy:~> mv .gnome2_private .gnome2_private_old
mtobler@stimpy:~> mv .gnome_private .gnome_private_old
mtobler@stimpy:~> mv .gtkrc-1.2-gnome2 .gtkrc-1.2-gnome2_old

so, these directories and their contents will continue to exist,
but the next time gnome starts up, it'll see that none of its
directories exist in your /home dir, so it will (re)create
those afresh, then, if you have any data you need from the old
directories, you can just copy that stuff over
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
Faith is the quality that enables you to eat blackberry jam on
a picnic without looking to see whether the seeds move.

thanks for the detailed reply. i tried but the same items are missing
from the main menu. it did get rid of a problem where i had mandrake
control center starting when i login. do u have any other ideas?
appreciate it.

cp -r /usr/share/applnk-mdk to /var/lib/gnome/Mandrake. The latter
contains the elements of Main Menu. I don't know why its also kep in
applnk-mdk