Icons from gnome panel are missing at random on startup

Example tests:

login:
only the System Load applet is running.

logout, login again:
entire top panel is totally dead. Clicking on it (LMB, RMB, drag&drop of items) does nothing
bottom panel: the Trash icon is working, other then that all is dead. Even desktop switcher is missing
Trying to move the Trash icon (LMB -> click) gives me hand cursor but the icon does not move, nor can I cancel the move (ESC or clicking) so the entire desktop is stucked.

logout, login again: identical result as previous

logout was done by killall -u username from root in VT1

logout, login again: now all works 100% correctly about the panels

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

Nothing is crashing.

Just the icons are not there.

The applets are actually running - for example the network-applet is not visible at all, but still it asks for the password/pin to connection (g3) and so on

I know nothing is crashing, but appears that gnome-panel hangs. Please attach GDB to it and provide a backtrace, following the instructions I already provided

I'm having these same problems on Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit. Sometimes when you boot up, icons go missing or don't fit properly, other times everything is there.

Sometimes the "power" button disappears and I have to go into a terminal and type sudo poweroff just to switch off my computer.

Until we wait for a bugfix from the updater, is there a way of going into the terminal and re-loading the Gnome Panel so the icons re-appear properly?

THIS IS DEFINITELY A BUG and it's been around since I first started using Ubuntu just under a year ago. This problem still happens quite often.

I too have this bug on Ubuntu 10.04, 64-bit.. This absolutely ridiculous.

For me, this solution worked:
1. Press Ctrl+alt+f1
2. Press Ctrl+alt+f7

If that dont work, then:
1. Create another duplicate top panel and bottom panel, and then move the apps that work, and recreate the apps that dont, then delete the old panels.

If those two dont work, then I am pretty sure you guessed what to do (Option 1: reinstall, Option 2: switch to kde and then delete all your old gnome settings in your home folder.)

Switching to KDE shouldn't be an option. I don't like KDE. I like Gnome..

This is a bug that NEEDS to be fixed. Sure you can reinstall, but my install did this since it was brand new.

I've installed Ubuntu on about 20 machines, and have never seen or heard about this until tonight. One person who I did an install for wrote me and said he couldn't find trash anywhere. I wrote back and sent him a screen shot of my desktop showing him where it was, and also told him how to find it through using places. He just sent me a screenshot of his desktop, and trash does not appear in the panel or anywhere on his desktop, nor does it appear in the menu section either. He is going to try adding trash applet to the panel and see if that works.

Using Ubuntu 10.04 I have the same problem. The suggestion from above (CTRL+ALT+F1, than CTRL+ALT+F7) did not work for me.
As I found out the applets are there; e.g. right-clicking where an applet should be shows its context menu, but their symbols are simply not shown. What does help here is resizing the panel. But of course this is no sensible solution and this bug it should be fixed.

I'm having this problem too since 10.04 but I was never annoyed enough to report it as a bug :). In about 25% of the logins one or more icons are missing, Sometimes an icon is in half.
The F1/F7 trick solved this. I see the applets flashing and then all is normal. When it happens again I will post a screenshot.