# No keyboard or Mouse after install, 11.2, Slim + Mate



## Tridac (Jan 7, 2019)

Hi,

Bit of an oddity this week. Have been running FreeBSD for some years and use the machines for embedded sw development and general experimentation. Various hardware to a pretty standard setup, in this case, 11.2 amd64 + slim + mate desktop. Usually works out of the box with no issues. with the most recent being  an old Sun X4170 with low end radeon 2250 pcie graphics, also 11.2 and no issues. Built up a fresh machine, a Proliant DL360 G8, over the new year to the same spec, but both keyboard and mouse are none functional at the slim login. If I disable slim and reboot into text mode, keyboard and mouse both work, as does the Radeon driver modesetting. The Xorg log file says it can't find the keyboard or mouse, both of which work in text mode ???. Checked all the config files and can see nothing unusual, so short of a reinstall, run out of ideas. Wonder if this is this a known problem, or am I missing something obvious ?...

Regards & Thanks

Chris


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## SirDice (Jan 8, 2019)

How is X set up? Do you still have an old-school xorg.conf? 



Tridac said:


> The Xorg log file says it can't find the keyboard or mouse,


Post the whole log please, you may not be looking at the right things.


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## Tridac (Jan 8, 2019)

SirDice said:


> How is X set up? Do you still have an old-school xorg.conf?
> 
> 
> Post the whole log please, you may not be looking at the right things.



Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Reinstalled and it now works, so must have been finger trouble, too much hast etc. Starting to wonder if it was something in the hw it didn't like, but no. Quick question: One thing I notice about 11.2 is that if I log in as root, slim and mate desktop, I get no desktop icons, nor does the mouse right click work. Login as normal user, it's fine. Rest of the desktop works as normal. Have noticed this on two 11.2 installs now, so I guess its intentional. . Probably just a setup option in mate, but can't find anything via a web search. Any ideas ?. Yes, I don't normally log in as root, but usefull where you need a desktop for several terminals open at once.  Otherwise,  a great OS, lightweight, robust and just works...


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## Vull (Jan 8, 2019)

Hi Tridac. May I make a suggestion? Instead of logging onto the desktop as root, you could login as the non-root user account, and then use the `su -` command from a Mate Terminal to gain root privileges and a root shell, but only inside that terminal window.

You might need to add your user to the wheel group if you haven't already done so:
	
	



```
# pw groupmod wheel -m USERNAME
```
... substituting your own user's login name for USERNAME. This is necessary in order for the `su -` command to work.

It really is a bad idea to start the desktop as root, and it will damage your desktop configuration by creating files as root which then might not be modifiable by your user account.


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## Tridac (Jan 8, 2019)

Vull said:


> Hi Tridac. May I make a suggestion? Instead of logging onto the desktop as root, you could login as the non-root user account, and then use the `su -` command from a Mate Terminal to gain root privileges and a root shell, but only inside that terminal window.
> 
> You might need to add your user to the wheel group if you haven't already done so:
> 
> ...



Sure not a good idea for general use and point taken, but have my own way of working for some things, over decades  and find it unduly restrictive not to have full control when I need it. Could do that in 10.x, so why not in 11 ?  Does anyone here know, or should I dig through the mate docs ...


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