LightDM explained

LightDM
Author:	Robert Ancell
Programming Language:	C
Operating System:	Linux, OpenIndiana
Size:	1 MB
Language:	>50 languages^[1] ^[2] ^[3]
Genre:	X display manager
License:	GPL-3.0-or-later

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.^[4] It also supports Wayland.^{[5] [6]}

LightDM is the default display manager for Edubuntu, Xubuntu and Mythbuntu since the 11.10 release,^[7] for Lubuntu since the 12.04 release until 16.10,^[8] for Kubuntu beginning with 12.10 until 15.04^[9] for Linux Mint^[10] and Antergos.

Features

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,^[11] fork of Unity Greeter	0.99.1.4^[12]
Deepin Greeter		5.0.0^[13]
GTK Greeter	Greeter for Xubuntu and former GTK reference implementation, former Lubuntu default, Xubuntu default	2.0.8^[14]
Mini Greeter	Minimalist, single-user. INI configuration	0.5.1
Pantheon Greeter		7.0.0^[15]
Qt5 Greeter	Greeter for Qt 5	0.11.1^[16]
Slick Greeter	Greeter for Linux Mint, fork of Unity Greeter	1.4.1
WebEngine Greeter	QtWebEngine-based, C++ rewrite of Web Greeter 3.0	—
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
Dormant LightDM Greeters
Name	Key feature(s)	Version	Website
Antergos Web Greeter	Default greeter for Antergos.^[17] Uses HTML/Javascript for theming^[18]	2.2.5^[19]
Crowd Greeter	Demonstration for an OpenGL-based Greeter	0.0.2
GTK Builder Greeter	An alternative implementation from LXDE for GTK based on GtkBuilder featuring WYSIWYG theme editing with Glade Interface Designer.	0.2.0
KDE Greeter		0.3.2.2
LXQt Greeter	Qt-only Greeter for LXQt desktop (formerly Razor Greeter) until superseded by SDDM^[20]	0.7
Qt Greeter		—
Unity Greeter	Former Ubuntu default	15.04.3

See also

• SDDM
• XDM (display manager)
• GNOME Display Manager

External links

• • Bugs in Debian
• Bugs in Ubuntu

Notes and References

1. Web site: Translations: Light Display Manager . Translations.launchpad.net . 2011-05-13 . 2013-05-29.
2. Web site: Translations: LightDM GTK Greeter . Translations.launchpad.net . 2013-05-08 . 2013-05-29.
3. Web site: Translations: Unity Greeter . Translations.launchpad.net . 2012-01-24 . 2013-05-29.
4. Web site: Fischer . Matt . » So You Want to Write a LightDM Greeter… Matt Fischer's Blog . Mattfischer.com . 2012-02-07 . 2013-05-29 . 2013-07-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130719131630/http://www.mattfischer.com/blog/?p=5 . dead .
5. Web site: Readme Manual of LightDM. GitHub. 3 May 2022 .
6. Web site: LightDM. Arch Linux Wiki. 2023-05-13.
7. Web site: BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes - Ubuntu Wiki .
8. Web site: Discussion about greeter (Log in) application for 16.10 Qt versi... : Blueprints : Lubuntu Next . 11 May 2014 .
9. Web site: Kubuntu 15.04 With Plasma 5.3 - A Totally Different Kubuntu - Linux.com. Swapnil. Bhartiya. Linux.com - The source for Linux Information. 2015-05-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20160316114759/http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/825994-kubuntu-1504-plasma-53-review. 2016-03-16. dead.
10. https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sonya_cinnamon_whatsnew.php New features in Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon
11. Web site: The Arctica Project . 2023-05-14. arctica-project.org. The Arctica Project.
12. Web site: Arctica Greeter . Github.
13. Web site: dde-session-ui. Github.
14. Web site: GTK LightDM Greeter for Xubuntu. Github.
15. Web site: LightDM Greeter for Pantheon. Github.
16. Web site: LightDM Greeter for Qt 5. Github.
17. Web site: Antergos Your Linux. Always Fresh. Never Frozen.. Antergos Linux. en-US. 2016-08-06. 2019-09-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20190903082317/https://forum.antergos.com/. dead.
18. Web site: lightdm-webkit2-greeter - master. doclets.io. 2016-08-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20161007061348/https://doclets.io/Antergos/lightdm-webkit2-greeter/master. 2016-10-07. dead.
19. Web site: Antergos/web-greeter. GitHub. 2016-08-06.
20. Web site: [Lxde-list] CALL FOR TESTERS: LXQt now available for testing ]. Leclanche . Jerome . 2013-10-30 . sourceforge.net . SourceForge . 2016-05-08 . ... For a display manager, SDDM is recommended ....