10.3 MATE

MATE Desktop Environment Overview

MATE is a desktop environment forked from GNOME 2, and its design philosophy preserves the traditional interaction style of GNOME 2. "Mate" also refers to yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis), the tea made from which is widely popular in South America.

Installing the MATE Desktop Environment

• Install using pkg:

# pkg install mate xorg wqy-fonts lightdm slick-greeter xdg-user-dirs

• Or install using Ports:

# cd /usr/ports/x11/mate/ && make install clean
# cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg/ && make install clean
# cd /usr/ports/x11-fonts/wqy/ && make install clean
# cd /usr/ports/x11/lightdm/ && make install clean
# cd /usr/ports/x11/slick-greeter/ && make install clean
# cd /usr/ports/devel/xdg-user-dirs/ && make install clean

Package Description

Package	Description
mate	MATE Desktop Environment
xorg	X Window System
wqy-fonts	WenQuanYi Chinese Fonts
lightdm	Lightweight Display Manager LightDM
slick-greeter	LightDM login screen plugin; LightDM requires at least one greeter to function properly
xdg-user-dirs	Automatically manages home directory subdirectories (optional installation)

Enable Services After Installation

Set the D-Bus service to start on boot:

# service dbus enable

Set the LightDM display manager to start on boot:

# service lightdm enable

Configuring LightDM

Edit the /usr/local/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf file and set greeter-session to slick-greeter.

startx Configuration File

Add the following content to the ~/.xinitrc file to start the MATE desktop session using the startx command:

exec mate-session

Configuring the Chinese Desktop Environment

Edit the /etc/login.conf file: find the default:\ section and change :lang=C.UTF-8 to :lang=zh_CN.UTF-8.

Rebuild the capability database based on the /etc/login.conf file:

# cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf

Input Method

FreeBSD Install MATE

The IBus input method framework has been tested and works; refer to the input method related chapters for specific configuration.

Desktop Gallery

FreeBSD Install MATE

FreeBSD Install MATE

Troubleshooting and Outstanding Issues

Configuring slick-greeter

Create the /usr/local/etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf file and write the following configuration.

[Greeter]
# Set the background image path for the login screen
background=/home/ykla/cat.png

# Whether to draw user-customized background images
draw-user-backgrounds=false

# Set the GTK+ theme name
theme-name=Dracula

# Set the icon theme name
icon-theme-name=Adwaita

# Whether to show the hostname
show-hostname=true

# Set the font name and size
font-name=Sans 12

# Whether to show the virtual keyboard option
show-keyboard=true

# Whether to show power management options (e.g., shutdown, restart)
show-power=true

# Whether to show the clock
show-clock=true

# Whether to show the quit option
show-quit=true

FreeBSD Install MATE

References

• FreeBSD Forums. lightdm not reading slick-greeter.conf[EB/OL]. [2026-03-25]. https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/lightdm-not-reading-slick-greeter-conf.92256/. Resolves the technical issue of LightDM not correctly reading the slick-greeter configuration file.