Lost Window Manager: 4.4.1

[Rich Shepard]

   I've put Xubuntu on my wife's laptop. A couple of weeks ago the keyboard
failed in a unique way. Yesterday the replacement keyboard came. I replaced
the failed one, and the system booted properly. But, when the xfce-4.4.1
desktop comes up, there is no window manager. And, I cannot create one from
the GUI settings dialog, nor by typing xfce4-xfwm4 at the command line or
the command dialog (alt-F2).

   Applications can be opened from the panel or a menu, but each one is
positioned at the upper left of the screen without the WM frame. There's
only the single virtual desktop and only one application can be
opened/accessed at a time.

   When I invoke the settings dialog and select 'window manager', I'm told
that there is none so it cannot be configured or tweaked. I don't get the
expected dialog with options for selecting style.

   Never having had this situation occur before I'm at a loss what to do.
I've had the panel not come up several times since the release of the 4.x
series, but not naked windows. BTW, I just upgraded to xubuntu-8.04 from
-7.10.

   What do you suggest I do?

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863