gnome panel probs (cont)

[i a uemlianin celtic co uk]

gnome panel problems

Thanks for your help.  However, no progress.  I installed gnome-core
1.4.0.4 and no change (except now my Mozilla won't work! I was going
to upgrade anyway ...)

> Are you saying that you have found the $prefix/gnome/[Something]/foo.desktop
> files, had a look at the "Exec:" line for each, and that 
> 
> * typing that command from "Exec:" works in mini-commander.
> * clicking the menu entry itself doesn't.

Yes.  Also, typing the command in a terminal works

> I am wondering whether you use GDM, 

I'm using kdm at the moment, attempting to install gdm (see
'gdm:through to the next round').


>  > ~/.xsession-errors
>  > ...
>  > xalf: timeout launching /bin/sh
> 
> At a -guess-, this is trying to start a program, and it's not starting,
> and xalf is thinking "now what?". That's a total guess. I don't know a
> lot about xalf. I don't know why it's launching shells at all. 

I think this is where the problem is.  The xalf message is triggered
by using the panel for one of these non-launching apps.  Is xalf
blocking me launching apps?  I notice my old version og Gnome (1.0, on
SuSE 6.4) didn't have xalf: is xalf necessary, and if not how can I
get rid of it?  If it is, any ideas on how to fix it?