Which version of e-smith-userpanel did you try?
Check the permissions on these files:
[root@thebeast:/root]$ ls /etc/e-smith/web/ -l
total 12
dr-xr-x--- 3 www admin 4096 Apr 2 11:47 common
dr-xr-x--- 2 root admin 4096 Apr 12 13:45 functions
dr-xr-x--- 4 root admin 4096 Dec 27 2000 panels
If they are not, fix them like so:
[root@thebeast:/root]$ chown root.admin /etc/e-smith/web/{functions,panels}
[root@thebeast:/root]$ chmod u=rx,g=rx /etc/e-smith/web/{functions,panels}