[Bug 32286] Gnome panel is gone - GConf problem?

[Draconicus]

Public bug report changed:
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/32286

Comment:
I experience the same error. The problem here is that gnome-panel fails to stop when the user logs out. 
Perhaps a line was missed that kills it, or something, but that fact is that it keeps running even after the majority of the GNOME processes have stopped. 

I tried killing gnome-panel, and when it started again, most of the
applets were unresponsive, and a couple of them, namely the ACPI battery
monitoring applet (this is on a laptop) crashed or didn't start.

I now have to reboot to check session changes or anything like that. 
This could be considered a serious problem.