I have the same problem. After upgrading to ubutnu 10.04 after a reboot or startup gnome (not unity) automatically starts but the pannels are just not there. My workaround at the moment: start a terminal ( I added a desktop starter for that) and type gnome-panel in there. Then the panels appear and I can do whatever I what with them.
I must say that I do not have an nVidia card but an ATI. I attached the output of lshw ** Attachment added: "hwlog" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+bug/777817/+attachment/2140065/+files/hwlog -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/777817 Title: Panels and unity don't open automatically at startup -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs