If you are running the gnome-shell version, the notification panel is now a pop-up panel called "message tray." You can get to it using the alt-control tab list, but the easiest way to open it is by pressing super-m. If running sonar-13.04.1 which uses the GNOME classic interface, the notifications should appear in the top panel. If you are no longer finding the bottom panel in GNOME classic, which generally includes the window list and workspace switcher, you may have somehow inadvertently deleted it, in which case, you may need to add it again, recreating the layout as close to the original layout as possible. It should also be possible to remove some GNOME-related directories under ~/.local/share to restore the default desktop layout, including the bottom panel. Anything you remove from ~/.local/share will be recreated with default settings the next time you use the application whose configuration you removed in this way. Hope this helps. ~Kyle http://kyle.tk/ -- "Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?" Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"