Rita G.
It is not a secret but something very basic, we all assume FreeBSD users in general already know, even if they are coming from Linux what work basically the same way behind the scenes.
- disable slim in rc.conf, to not automatically start it during the boot
- reboot (you do not really need to reboot but it is simpler)
- login with your user in the terminal
echo 'exec cinnamon-session' > .xinitrc
startx
- now you should have your desktop running.
If somehow you do not know how to get back to terminal after have slim running, you just need to change to another tty ->
ctrl + alt + F1
(or F2, F3 etc.). However, if you are using the nvidia blob it probably won't work. Then you would need to restart as single user mode, typing 2 in the boot manager, then:
If using UFS:
# mount -u /
# mount -a -t ufs
# swapon -a
If using ZFS:
# zfs set readonly=off zroot
# zfs mount -a
EDIT: now disable slim in
rc.conf, reboot and do the first part.
When you have your desktop running, as you see to be in a hurry, we take back on your slim problem.