How to disable desktop and menu bar?

[Denver Dave]

We seem to have the opposite problem. When fiddling with panel settings (I think), we seem to have lost our desktop icons except for knoppix, which is still there and also lost the bottom menu bar. on all desktops. Also the working desktop has a 1/3 inch gap at the top and about a 1 1/2 inch gap at the left side with just a gray color in the gap.

No idea how to get the bottom menu bar back and how to make the desktop take up the entire screen.

Haven't tried rebooting, friend thinks we can shut down from terminal console, since we don't have a menu for shutdown. ... added later - shutdown from terminal not authorized... power off button worked. .... rebooting brought the menu back.... good thing.

Whew - OK now.