This is a common problem with K. Most things on the root panel are wiped. It's a 'Feature'(tm).
You'll have to re-add them with <rightclick>|Add|Applet This won't happen with user panels, but will again with root.
That's right. But I want to add, that one is _STRONGLY_ encouraged, _NOT_ to login to KDE as root. You can login as normal user and then you can start applications with root privileges using a shell and use "kdesu <application>". This way only the application that needs to have root privileges, runs as root. All other apps cannot harm your system. This prevents the deletion of important system files by mistake when using a graphical file manager like konqueror or a similar program that under normal operation is designed to modify the whole file system. This is the reason why KDE hampers the comfort of usage intentionally when running as root. Believe me, you will encounter such a maximum credible accident faster than you think. Daniel