I made some progress.
I replaced the usb cable 
. That makes he Leonardo more responsive but still not visible in Arduino IDE 1.5.2 or 1.0.3 (also not as root )
The output of dmesg |tail
usb 2-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 107
usb 2-1.1: new full speed USB device number 108 using ehci_hcd
usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=2341, idProduct=0036
usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
usb 2-1.1: Product: Arduino Leonardo
usb 2-1.1: Manufacturer: Arduino LLC
usb 2-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
cdc_acm 2-1.1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
usb 2-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 108
usb 2-1.1: new full speed USB device number 109 using ehci_hcd
usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=2341, idProduct=8036
usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 2-1.1: Product: Arduino Leonardo
usb 2-1.1: Manufacturer: Arduino LLC
usb 2-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.1/2-1.1:1.2/input/input104
generic-usb 0003:2341:8036.005C: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.01 Mouse [Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.1/input2
bash-4.1$
you can clearly see the first port opening and closing and then he second port opening.
But I do not see an assignment to a usb port like with a uno.
Any help is appreciated.