Dude, where's my Desktop?

Xubuntu (specifically 6.10, which I'm using) has this curious bug where either the desktop or the panels or both disappear all of a sudden. It's something that's happened to me a couple of times. Not fatal but annoying.

Apparently, this happens whenever you exit from Xubuntu without logging off properly, e.g., pressing the reboot switch on your computer. Thankfully, fixing it is quite easy.

So how do you solve the problem of Xubuntu's disappearing desktop? Or the disappearing panel?

First, press Alt+F2. This will bring up the Run program dialog box.

To recover the panels, type in xfce4-panel and click Run.

To recover the desktop, type in xfdesktop and click Run.