# Starting slim



## matthewp (Apr 12, 2014)

I followed these directions to install slim: http://daemon-notes.com/articles/desktop/slim

Except that I used pkg install slim.

I added slim_enable="YES" to my rc.conf and restarted the VM expecting the login prompt to show up but I still get the tty login.

How do I start slim from the command line? Is there a start-slim or something?  An init script I can use maybe?


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## nakal (Apr 12, 2014)

Yes, this is correct so far, but did you install and configure Xorg? You can look up most problems in /var/log/Xorg.0.log.


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## matthewp (Apr 12, 2014)

Why would I have to separately install Xorg? Isn't slim dependent on it? I also installed mate-desktop which is dependent on it.


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## matthewp (Apr 12, 2014)

Ok, now I did a `pkg install xorg` and restarted and I get the slim login prompt but my mouse and keyboard aren't working, so I'm guessing something is misconfigured. How can I get to a tty from here? ctrl+alt+1,2,3 aren't working.

edit: nm, it's alt+f1,f2, etc


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## matthewp (Apr 12, 2014)

Ok, so I got xorg configured and am able to use mouse/keyboard in slim. But when I type in my user/pass I get:


```
Failed to execute login command.
```

I don't see anything in the xorg log to indicate an issue.


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## matthewp (Apr 12, 2014)

Ok, needed a xinitrc and to install mate-base... think it's working now. Thanks for the help.


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## nakal (Apr 12, 2014)

I recognize all the problems which you mentioned here step-by-step. 

To be a real help to others you should also mention what was the problem and how you solved it.


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## matthewp (Apr 13, 2014)

Hi nakal, the essential problem is that `pkg install slim` didn't install all of it's required packages, that is it did not install Xorg. Same is true for mate-desktop. So I think that might be a bug with those packages.


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## wblock@ (Apr 14, 2014)

It seems like a bug, but really is not.  Most X programs don't depend on a particular X server because the user may want to pick from one of several.  Or they may not want to install X on their system at all because they'll be running it remotely.


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