it wont damage you keyboard or mouse nor would your monitor cease to work.... when booting your o/s should run a scan for peripherals such as mouse and keyboard if yours are compatible then you should not have any problems you may even get a configuration page to configure any special features of the peripheral your installing. if not compatible you may get a message sayin mouse device not found or whatever your installing or it may just may not work as was the case i encountered with an incompatible mouse on redhat .either way you'll know its not compatible .