[kde-linux] No panel?

[Russel Hill]

I had KDE running just fine a few days ago.  I run my box more-or-less
headless using a vnc serrver.  Then, I switched to debian unstable and
dist-upgraded...  I worked through some fontpath issues and managed to
get the vncserver running again, but it comes up without a panel. 
Running kicker from the konsole does bring up a panel (thankfully, a
konsole gets started).  I've tried:

- cleaning /tmp
- cleaning /var/tmp
- cleaning ~/.kde (both surgically and with a big hammer)
- creating a new user

None of which helped.

Versions:
Qt: 3.3.6
KDE: 3.5.2
KWin: 3.0

I don't see anything relevant to kicker or the panel in the vnc log.

Is there somewhere else I should be looking?
Is there something obvious I've missed?

TIA,
Russel Hill