Installing MATE desktop on Rocky 9 Gnome

I installed all of the MATE desktop packages on Rocky Linux 9, I already have Gnome installed, but when I load MATE it is not responsive. I can not use the mouse and the Windows key does not work. All I get is a popup regarding an applet that is not installed and whether should I remove it from the panel, but I can not switch to this popup using Alt tab. How can I fully install MATE on Rocky Linux 9 to use this instead of Gnome? Thanks.

Would be good to use the alternative images - Alternative Images | Rocky Linux there is one here specifically for Mate. I would install from this, if the problems don’t exist, that means there is some conflict with your existing install. That way at least you will have a pure Mate install, and not one that has been pulled in from a different install with a different GUI.

The MATE is in EPEL. Alas, the repo for el9 lacks convenient “yum group” for it – EPEL for el7 had Environment Group “MATE Desktop” (and group “MATE”) defined.

What I’ve done is to start with “Minimal Install” environment and then add about the same list of packages/groups that the el7 version of groups did mention. I have no idea whether the package selection is sensible – I do use GNOME myself. The alternative image is probably more thought out.

- '@standard'
- '@base-x'
- '@Core'
- '@Fonts'
- '@internet-browser'
- '@input-methods'
- '@Multimedia'
- '@print-client'
- '@office-suite'
# EL7 @mate-desktop mandatory
- caja
- dconf
- gtk2-engines
- gvfs
- gvfs-fuse
- gvfs-gphoto2
- gvfs-mtp
- gvfs-smb
- libmatekbd
- libmateweather
- libsecret
- marco
- mate-backgrounds
- mate-control-center
- mate-desktop
- mate-icon-theme
- mate-media
- mate-menus
- mate-notification-daemon
- mate-panel
- mate-polkit
- mate-power-manager
- mate-session-manager
- mate-settings-daemon
- mate-system-monitor
- mate-themes
- xdg-user-dirs-gtk
- yelp
# EL7 @mate-desktop default
- NetworkManager
- atril
- atril-caja
- brasero
- dconf-editor
- engrampa
- eom
- filezilla
- gparted
- gucharmap
- lightdm
- lightdm-gtk
- mate-applets
- mate-calc
- mate-dictionary
- mate-disk-usage-analyzer
- mate-menus-preferences-category-menu
- mate-screensaver
- mate-screenshot
- mate-search-tool
- mate-system-log
- mate-terminal
- mozo
- network-manager-applet
- p7zip
- p7zip-plugins
- pluma
- seahorse
- setroubleshoot
- totem
- vim-enhanced
# other
- caja-actions
- caja-actions-doc
- caja-open-terminal
- gedit

I used the RL8.5 instructions to install Mate per this post here:
Install Mate DE

It may be that you are having trouble with the window manager and or wayland. Mate does not work with wayland so you need to have all the necessary Xorg files. Using the instructions in the link above should bring them in.

I ran this command: dnf install mate-* this got it installed, I just needed to load a terminal and load metacity. So I need to set up a WM for MATE. But it works now. I just did not install the dependencies.