Dude broke his XFCE

[Jeffrey Sabarese]

sorry if this seems a duplicate. i did search my email, but i don't
think i received any replies to my first report of XFCE failing to
load on my system

i had been using XFCE (as shipped with FC5) for several weeks, but in
early April it "stopped working". by now, i don't recall what i might
have done to cause this-- i don't think i had any idea at the time
either, so i'm sorry i don't have much to provide in the way of
"supporting evidence"; clues to help solve the mystery.

THE PROBLEM:
when "booting into XFCE", the Task-Bar at the top loads, plus a few
"auto-start" items in the taskbar tray, such as KNotes, Klipper,
Beagle

the "XFCE Menu" (the "main menu" with all launchers [and printer and
clock by default, etc.]) -- it does not load-- therefore the desktop
manager is currently useless.

logging out is also impossible in this condition (AFAIK) w/out a hard shut-down.