LightDM
Display manager for X windowing systems
LightDM is a free and open-source X display manager that aims to be lightweight, fast, extensible and multi-desktop. It can use various front-ends to draw the user interface, also called Greeters. It also supports Wayland.
LightDM is the default display manager for Edubuntu, Xubuntu and Mythbuntu since the 11.10 release, for Lubuntu since the 12.04 release until 16.10, for Kubuntu beginning with 12.10 until 15.04 for Linux Mint and Antergos.
01Features
Features include:
- Codebase with very few dependencies
- Supports different display technologies (X11 and Wayland through Mir)
- Supports remote login (incoming, XDMCP, VNC, outgoing, XDMCP, pluggable)
- Comprehensive test suite
- Standards-compliance (PAM, logind, etc.)
- Well-defined interface between the server and user interface
- Cross-desktop (greeters can be written in any toolkit)
- Well-defined greeter API allowing multiple GUIs
- Support for all display manager use cases, with plug-ins where appropriate
LightDM has a simpler code base than GDM and does not load any GNOME libraries to work, but at the cost of some features that the user may or may not need.
Available greeters
| LightDM Greeters in active development | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Key feature(s) | Version | Website |
| Arctica Greeter | Greeter for Arctica, fork of Unity Greeter | 0.99.1.4 | github.com/ArcticaProject/arctica-greeter |
| Deepin Greeter | Greeter for Deepin | 5.0.0 | github.com/linuxdeepin/dde-session-ui |
| GTK Greeter | Greeter for Xubuntu and former GTK reference implementation, former Lubuntu default, Xubuntu default | 2.0.8 | github.com/Xubuntu/lightdm-gtk-greeter |
| Mini Greeter | Minimalist, single-user. INI configuration | 0.5.1 | github.com/prikhi/lightdm-mini-greeter |
| Pantheon Greeter | Greeter for elementary OS | 7.0.0 | github.com/elementary/greeter |
| Qt5 Greeter | Greeter for Qt 5 | 0.11.1 | github.com/rezso/lightdm-qt5-greeter |
| Slick Greeter | Greeter for Linux Mint, fork of Unity Greeter | 2.2.7 | github.com/linuxmint/slick-greeter |
| WebEngine Greeter | QtWebEngine-based, C++ rewrite of Web Greeter 3.0 | , | github.com/matijaskala/lightdm-webengine-greeter |
| Web Greeter | QtWebEngine-based, continuing Antergos Web Greeter 3.0, allows to create web based themes | 3.4.1 | |
| WebKit2 Greeter | Easy theming | 2.0.0 | gitlab.com/tearch-linux/applications-and-tools/lightdm-webkit2-greeter |
| Dormant LightDM Greeters | |||
| Name | Key feature(s) | Version | Website |
| Antergos Web Greeter | Default greeter for Antergos. Uses HTML/JavaScript for theming | 2.2.5 | github.com/Antergos/web-greeter |
| Crowd Greeter | Demonstration for an OpenGL-based Greeter | 0.0.2 | launchpad.net/crowd-greeter |
| GTK Builder Greeter | An alternative implementation from LXDE for GTK based on GtkBuilder featuring WYSIWYG theme editing with Glade Interface Designer. | 0.2.0 | lxde.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lxde%2Fldm-gtk-builder-greeter%3Ba%3Dsummary |
| KDE Greeter | Plasma 4 integration, Kubuntu default until superseded by SDDM | 0.3.2.2 | github.com/KDE/lightdm |
| LXQt Greeter | Qt-only Greeter for LXQt desktop (formerly Razor Greeter) until superseded by SDDM | 0.7 | github.com/surlykke/qt-lightdm-greeter |
| Qt Greeter | Reference implementation in Qt | , | launchpad.net/lightdm-qt-greeter |
| Unity Greeter | Former Ubuntu default | 15.04.3 | launchpad.net/unity-greeter |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “LightDM”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- ElementaryOS Pantheon Greeter 5.0 screenshot.png by Software: elementaryOS developers. Screenshot: Cassidy James, GPLv3
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