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Questions tagged [display-manager]

A system's display manager (DM) is a graphical login manager. It is the program that starts the X server and user sessions, presenting the user with a graphical login screen (greeter). As of 11.10, the default display manager is LightDM; previously, GNOME Display Manager (GDM) was used.

The main role of a display manager on an X Windows system is to provide a graphical login, starting the X server (X Org in Ubuntu) and presenting a "greeter" (a graphical login screen), so that the user session starts with a GUI. Without a DM, the user would have to log in on a tty and then, if X Org is not configured to start on login, they would have to issue a command (such as startx) to enter the desktop environment.

LightDM is the default display manager in Ubuntu.

Related tags:

Wikipedia page on "X Display Manager"

276 questions
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How do I disable X at boot time so that the system boots in text mode?

Is it possible to disable X at boot time? I'm setting up a server so it would be nice if it wouldn't load the graphical interface every time I boot.
Olivier Lalonde
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5 answers

What is gdm3, kdm, lightdm? How to install and remove them?

What is gdm3, kdm, lightdm? How to install and remove and repair them? Can anyone explain in details?
Shateel
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What's the difference between GDM and LightDM?

What is the difference between GDM and LightDM? How can one switch between them. I mean if I have selected LightDM during installation process, will I be able switch to GDM?
user7044
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8 answers

How do I switch from LightDM to GDM?

How do I switch from the default display manager (Lightdm) to the older display manager (GDM)?
Ron Belcher
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62
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11 answers

How do I save/remember last-used window position and size for applications?

When I log in Ubuntu, I would like all windows opened at previous session (terminal and Firefox mainly) to be re-opened automatically at the same size and position. How to proceed?
Eric
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4 answers

Is gdm3 preferred to lightdm?

I have hard a hard time finding good information on the performance difference between display managers on Ubuntu (specifically between lightdm and gdm3). With Ubuntu switching to Gnome, I would assume that it would also be recommended to switch…
Startec
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5 answers

Ubuntu 18.04 stuck in boot after starting Gnome Display Manager on Intel Graphics

I ran into a problem this week, where I couldn't find a solution to. Everytime I start Ubuntu, it boots nominally, until it reaches "starting Gnome Display Manager" where the Konsole gets stuck and the screen is going black every few seconds. I also…
Lukas
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How can I make LightDM the default display manager?

I have LightDM installed and can start it with sudo start lightdm. But at boot, GDM is still the default. How can change this so LightDM is loaded automatically at boot instead of GDM?
Anders Feder
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Can't switch to gdm3 using sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

I was looking for a way to switch to gdm3 from lightdm, when I found this answer. So I tried to apply it, and entered sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3, then a selection screen appeared with 2 options: gdm3 and lightdm. It was the same screen that appeared…
Tooniis
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How to change display's position from command line?

How can I use the command prompt to do get the setup shown below? Edit: I need the secondary display to be located to the left and half-way to the top of the primary display, as shown above. The output of xrandr is: Screen 0: minimum 320 x…
Eduardo
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Make KDM the default display manager

I'm giving KDE another try - so far so good. I installed everything using apt-get install kubuntu-desktop. During the installation it asked me which login manager to use and I chose LightDM - however, now I'm finding user sessions (KDE) are behaving…
Sergey
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How do I make GDM the default display manager?

I believe my question says what I am trying to achieve. Steps I tried to make gdm my default display manager: sudo dpkg-reconfigure than select gdm as my default. Edit /etc/X11/default-display-manager and change its content…
RanRag
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2 answers

Wayland in Ubuntu 20.04 (IntelGPU)

I sadly do not have the choice of starting a Gnome with Wayland session when logging in (no gear icon showing). Using a Thinkpad with integrated Intel GPU, WaylandEnable option in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf is commented. No idea what to do, maybe someone…
Thilo
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5 answers

How to take screenshot of an X11 based GUI from a text terminal (such as tty1)?

I tried using DISPLAY=:0 import -window root "$HOME/Pictures/screenshot.png" (import is part of the ImageMagick suite), but that just displays a black screen. I want to do this as I wanted to automate opening an app and taking screenshots of it in…
Yatharth Agarwal
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Why use a Display manager?

I'm currently trying to free as much memory as possibile because I'm using my laptop for scientific simulations. One of the things I made is disable gdm and using login+startx to start GNOME session. Apart from eye-candy and comfor, is there any…
Juan Sebastian Totero
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