Thanks for the bug report. Without a stack trace from the crash it's
very hard to determine what caused the crash. Please see
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/getting-traces.cgi for more information
about getting a useful stack trace.

Because the desktop comes up when I bootup I'm not sure how to run it 
in a debugger.  I read the link 
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/getting-traces.cgi but do not see how I can 
run the panel though it.  Before getting this message my mouse had 
gone crazy.  It was only able to move across the top of the screen and 
I couldn't do anything.  Then I rebooted and got this error.  I have 
now switch to KDE and the desktop comes up fine.

It could be helpful to know which OS you are running.  I would like to
guess that you're running Red Hat 8.0 and that you're experiencing bug
94625 (which we get lots of reports for every day and which there are
several fixes out there for), but I'd need to know more about your
system.  So,
   What distro and version are you running?
   What version of gnome-panel is running? ('rpm -q gnome-panel'
     should give you the answer under most distros)

Also, you can attach the debugger to the program, after the program
has already crashed.  This is mentioned on that page about getting
traces, though it's probably not all that clear.  The steps are to:
   1) Get the program to crash
   2) When you see the dialog saying gnome-panel (process xxxx) has
      crashed,
   3) Run 
        gdb `which gnome-pnael`
      at the command-line
   4) Enter the command
        attach xxxx
      where xxxx is the number reported in the dialog
   5) Enter the command
        thready apply all bt
   6) Enter the output into this bug report.

Created attachment 16180 [details]
gdb of gnome-panel

Well, what you supplied is enough to know that you're using RedHat and
probably version 8.0 (though I'm not sure).  But you missed the
crucial last step (the one that provides all the useful info).  Can
you repeat what you did and then also run the
   thread apply all bt
command?

Elijah,
     I attached a file which I hope has the appropriate debug
information.  I did not understand step 5 and step 6 I just cut and
pasted the text on the screen to a file.  Let me know if that was
right.  I looked into getting the newest version of gnome but couldn't
find any doc on how to install and the link brought be to a source ftp
server but nothing was zipped up.  Would I update a specific module or
can to simply update the entire gnome desktop?  Do you have a link to
doc on how to install?  Is there a single file download location?
Thanks for you patience
Bryan

Doh!  bugzilla trashed my response somehow.  I'll retype it...

You may run everything right, but if you did, you didn't get
everything pasted (which may be a bug and not your fault--I've seen
cutting and pasting chop off the ends of what I was trying ot paste
before).  If so, can you try it again?

If you didn't do the "thread apply all bt" step, it's just like the
"attach 2807" step.  Once the attach 2807 (or whatever process number
you happen to get at the time) finishes, at the gdb prompt you type
"thread apply all bt".


As far as upgrading gnome, the easiest way would be to install Red Hat
9.  The other ways (like garnome or compiling from CVS) aren't so
simple...

Created attachment 16203 [details]
gdb with thread apply all bt

I actually didn't run it right because of a syntax error.  "thready"
not "thread" and I didn't see options in help.  Anyway I've attached a
file that hopefully contains what you need to see what's going on.  
Note that the menu bar is on the left side of my screen (not the
bottom).  I don't know if that's part of the symptom.
If you find a that I'm running into a known bug will there be a
specific patch or will you suggest Red had 9 or downloading and
compiling all source anyway?
Thanks

P.S. I'm runnig redhat 8 and gnome-panel 2.0.6-9

Yes, the bug you've reported is another instance of bug 94625, as I
was guessing earlier.  The fact that the panel was on the left side
and the fact that you're using RedHat 8.0 would have been enough to
determine this.  The stack trace itself will also determine it.  Havoc
had a number of comments in bug 94625.  Some of them are how to
workaround the problem (if you don't want to install anything new),
and one of them is where you can download a fixed package to install from.

For future bug reports, I can help you out faster if you give me all
that info (RedHat 8.0, panel version 2.0.6, anything unique about your
situation if you can tell, and a stack trace) in your first report (or
at least as much of it as you know).

Hope this helps... I'm going to reopen to mark as a duplicate of
94625.  But if you have further questions, feel free to add them to
this report.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 94625 ***

O.K. I know now how to trace and I'll update the bug with specific 
versions etc.  But haven't seen where or how I get the patch or work 
around instructions.

Havoc's comments from that bug were as follows:

Work around (moves the panel back to the normal location):
  Try just nuking all of ~/.gconf/apps/panel, then "killall gconfd-2"
  and log in again.

Fix (install the gnome-panel rpm from this location):
  There are fixed gnome-panel packages at
  ftp://people.redhat.com/hp/testing/