When developing the panel or panel-related packages like the Applications Menu and indicators, you'll want to start the panel from Terminal to view logs. Wingpanel is automatically started and restarted by gnome-session, but if Wingpanel is stopped twice within a minute, it will stop automatically restarting, and you can gather logs:
- In Terminal run
killall io.elementary.wingpaneltwice to stop the current Wingpanel - Start Wingpanel with debug logging by running
G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all io.elementary.wingpanel
To restore normal behavior logout or reboot to restart your session.