Well further to my post above after installing Screenlets the problem is back. Then the last run of updates seems to have done something to Compiz whereby visual effects keeps reverting to "none". The Panel issue was much worse during this. After removing and reinstalling Compiz now the whole thing seems better. Panel only fails like 1 out of 6 boots now.
The ssd stall bug does sound very closely related. Another hint ... 3 times over the last 40 boots I get an error message at some point during the boot. It only shows for a split second so I cant really read much but its something like this: "... one or more ... can not be mounted ... /etc/ ... press esc for ... shell ..." -- GNOME Applets fail to load on UNR 9.10 at boot https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/474495 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gnome-panel in ubuntu. -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs