MATE New Install desktop issues

hrsetrdr · Sep 13, 2026

I chose to use the FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso as I *had* an nvidia 1080ti in the machine I'm using. I took it out to simplify things, after reading comments in this thread.
I have read / re-read the FBSD Handbook sections on graphics drivers, Desktop Environments & configuration. BUT, I seem to be missing **something*** but am getting nowhere in getting Mate(or LXQT) properly functioning for my user. My user is in the Wheel group, and I do have the entry "pw groupmod video -m username" executed as root. I did use the desktop-installer and followed that path.
However two conditions are just not right: 1. as the user "startx" brings up the twm DE. 2. using "startx" as root does get me a LXQT desktop.

I'm trying to make sense of it all, if any thoughts comes to mind that you-all would care to share, I'd appreciate it.

gergeskirolos59 · Sep 13, 2026

i am a noob but i may be able to help

lets start with the basics it looks like that you did 2 xinitrc files

you need to delete both and do one in /usr/local/etc/X11/xinit directory (according to startx(1))

The system-wide xinitrc and xserverrc files are found in the
/usr/local/etc/X11/xinit directory.

again this will not take effect until you delete xinitrc files you did for each user

gergeskirolos59 · Sep 13, 2026

you will probably find them by using

$HOME/.xinitrc

for each user

hrsetrdr · Sep 13, 2026

I chose to use the FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso as I *had* an nvidia 1080ti in the machine I'm using. I took it out to simplify things, after reading comments in this thread.
I have read / re-read the FBSD Handbook sections on graphics drivers, Desktop Environments & configuration. BUT, I seem to be missing **something*** but am getting nowhere in getting Mate(or LXQT) properly functioning for my user. My user is in the Wheel group, and I do have the entry "pw groupmod video -m username" executed as root. I did use the desktop-installer and followed that path.
However two conditions are just not right: 1. as the user "startx" brings up the twm DE. 2. using "startx" as root does get me a LXQT desktop.

I'm trying to make sense of it all, if any thoughts comes to mind that you-all would care to share, I'd appreciate it.

gergeskirolos59 · Sep 13, 2026

when you do this xstart from any user will behave the same

also last time when i tried desktop-installer it was broken so make sure drivers and basic things are working by

sudo pkg install nvidia-driver nvidia-drm-kmod nvidia-xconfig

sudo sysrc kld_list+="nvidia nvidia-modeset"

kldload nvidia nvidia-modeset

nvidia-xconfig

this should make sure drivers are installed , will start when system start and xorg config file is here and configured properly

nxjoseph@ · Sep 13, 2026

hrsetrdr said:
1. as the user "startx" brings up the twm DE. 2. using "startx" as root does get me a LXQT desktop.

If the user has not configured a /home/user/.xinitrc file, $ startx defaults to x11-wm/twm.

You may have a /root/.xinitrc configured for root user, you can try copying it into the user's home directory and try $ startx again.

$ cp /root/.xinitrc /home/user
$ startx

T-Daemon · Sep 13, 2026

Greetings.

hrsetrdr said:
I have read / re-read the FBSD Handbook sections on graphics drivers, Desktop Environments & configuration. BUT, I seem to be missing **something*** but am getting nowhere in getting Mate(or LXQT) properly functioning for my user.

Have you followed the "8.2.4.4. Start MATE" handbook chapter? Use a display manger, or manually invoke startx(1), with ~/.xinitrc configured as described.

drhowarddrfine · Sep 13, 2026

startx() is not a user so I don't know how that got in there. Do you have a file in your /home marked .xinitrc? ls -l .xinitrc

scottro · Sep 13, 2026

drhowarddrfine, the reason for my thanks above is because I just learned something. I always thought (using bash as shell) though I see it doesn't matter whether I use bash, sh, or zsh that one had to do ls -a .xinitrc to see a .<file> and just found out thanks to your post, that I don't. Even a simple ls .xinitrc works

drhowarddrfine · Sep 13, 2026

scottro That's why we rub elbows so often.

scottro · Sep 13, 2026

There has to be a joke there, but I'm too sleepy to think of it.

Anyway, thanks again.

drhowarddrfine · Sep 13, 2026

scottro We socialize enough here, as in a crowd, to touch elbows and, therefore, the intelligence rubs off on each other.
You twit.

scottro · Sep 13, 2026

Ok, that made me laugh.

hrsetrdr · Monday at 1:44 AM

T-Daemon said:
Greetings.

Have you followed the "8.2.4.4. Start MATE" handbook chapter? Use a display manger, or manually invoke startx(1), with ~/.xinitrc configured as described.

Yes, but apparently there are a few points that I didn't understand, or some random typo in editing a .conf file. I'll keep at it until I get it right.

Right now: my user couldn't "startx" at all, returned an error: xauth: file /home/myname/.serverauth.2511 does not exist
When using "startx" my root account was able to bring up a Mate desktop.

drhowarddrfine · Monday at 2:09 AM

You don't want root running your desktop. Are you saying there is a .xinitrc in / ?
Is there a .xinitrc in your home directory? What is its contents?
Is there a .serverauth.2511 in your home directory? That is /home/myname/ If so, are there any others?
If there isn't one, do touch serverauth.2511 in /home/myname/ and see if that fixes the issue. Or maybe some of them.

In any case, do NOT run startx as root!

T-Aoki · Monday at 9:58 AM

nxjoseph@ said:
If the user has not configured a /home/user/.xinitrc file, $ startx defaults to x11-wm/twm.

You may have a /root/.xinitrc configured for root user, you can try copying it into the user's home directory and try $ startx again.

$ cp /root/.xinitrc /home/user
$ startx

Note that, in this way, owner and access permissions are kept as-is for root.
So if it has, for example, 600 (rw-------), the user cannot use copied ~/.xinitrc. You need to chmod to allow the user to read it as root.

hrsetrdr · Tuesday at 8:59 PM

nxjoseph@ said:
If the user has not configured a /home/user/.xinitrc file, $ startx defaults to x11-wm/twm.

You may have a /root/.xinitrc configured for root user, you can try copying it into the user's home directory and try $ startx again.

$ cp /root/.xinitrc /home/user
$ startx

That was all it took, my user is “in business “! So I should switch to root and rm -f ~/.xinitrc.

T-Aoki · Tuesday at 10:22 PM

hrsetrdr said:
That was all it took, my user is “in business “! So I should switch to root and rm -f ~/.xinitrc.

So mv(1) instead of cp(1)? And then chmod(1) if needed.

hrsetrdr · 2026-09-19T15:08:13+0100

Now that the machine in the OP is up and running, I'm rather pleased with myself and have decided to do a dual boot FBSD install with my daily driver, which has an existing Debian installation. I just followed Chapter 8 Desktop Environments. rather the desktop-installer, which seems to obscure simple, correct procedures. This machine has an RTX 3060, which I was concerned about it's being a more complicated matter, being nvidia. I'm pleased that Mate installed nicely, but I still have an unresolved issue with lighdm-greeter configuration. I edited the /etc/rc.conf file and added #sysrc lightdm_enable="YES", and rebooted. While rebooting hundreds of lines of "lightdm-gtk-greeter" displayed, which doesn't seem right.

drsnx60 · 2026-09-19T15:27:29+0100

sysrc is utility program for entering lines into /etc/rc.conf

in no circumstances should the string ' sysrc' be included on a line in the rc-conf file.
you use 'sysrc' instead of using an editor .

PLS read the manual

$ man sysrc

hrsetrdr · 2026-09-19T15:49:17+0100

drsnx60 said:
sysrc is utility program for entering lines into /etc/rc.conf

in no circumstances should the string ' sysrc' be included on a line in the rc-conf file.
you use 'sysrc' instead of using an editor .

PLS read the manual

$ man sysrc

Mistakes are part of the learning process, however thanks for your assistance, and of course thanks for the reminder to "RTM".

rshad muhammad · 2026-09-20T06:43:51+0100

hrsetrdr said:
I chose to use the FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso as I *had* an nvidia 1080ti in the machine I'm using. I took it out to simplify things, after reading comments in this thread.
I have read / re-read the FBSD Handbook sections on graphics drivers, Desktop Environments & configuration. BUT, I seem to be missing **something*** but am getting nowhere in getting Mate(or LXQT) properly functioning for my user. My user is in the Wheel group, and I do have the entry "pw groupmod video -m username" executed as root. I did use the desktop-installer and followed that path.
However two conditions are just not right: 1. as the user "startx" brings up the twm DE. 2. using "startx" as root does get me a LXQT desktop.

I'm trying to make sense of it all, if any thoughts comes to mind that you-all would care to share, I'd appreciate it.

desr sir,
noticing your predicament, I did a fresh install of the mate desktop. I did
doas pkg ins mate xorg-minimal. after that i created an xinitric file with command
vi .xinitric n include in it;
exec mate-session
I then rebooted from my wayland desktop n login with the command startx.
I am able to boot into the mate desktop n writing this.

DanielBowman · 2026-09-20T09:09:29+0100

~/.xinitrc i.e. in user's home folder, is what startx reads
User has to be in group video.

One caveat to be aware of, I ran into in the past:
When you install Desktop Environment under your user using sudo/doas, it will install but some of the folders might end up in your normal user Home BUT with wrong permissions (for root). SO when you startx as normal user, the folders in your home can't be modified or even read until you change ownership and/or permissions on them.
When installing DE, just su - or just login as root altogether, install everything and when you are satisfied, login as normal user, create or copy .xinitrc to your home folder et voila.