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.

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
NameKey feature(s)VersionWebsite
Arctica GreeterGreeter for Arctica, fork of Unity Greeter0.99.1.4
Deepin GreeterGreeter for Deepin5.0.0
GTK GreeterGreeter for Xubuntu and former GTK reference implementation, former Lubuntu default, Xubuntu default2.0.8
Mini GreeterMinimalist, single-user. INI configuration0.5.1
Pantheon GreeterGreeter for elementary OS7.0.0
Qt5 GreeterGreeter for Qt 50.11.1
Slick GreeterGreeter for Linux Mint, fork of Unity Greeter1.4.1
WebEngine GreeterQtWebEngine-based, C++ rewrite of Web Greeter 3.0
Web GreeterQtWebEngine-based, continuing Antergos Web Greeter 3.0, allows to create web based themes3.4.1
WebKit2 GreeterEasy theming2.0.0
Dormant LightDM Greeters
NameKey feature(s)VersionWebsite
Antergos Web GreeterDefault greeter for Antergos. Uses HTML/JavaScript for theming2.2.5
Crowd GreeterDemonstration for an OpenGL-based Greeter0.0.2
GTK Builder GreeterAn alternative implementation from LXDE for GTK based on GtkBuilder featuring WYSIWYG theme editing with Glade Interface Designer.0.2.0
KDE GreeterPlasma 4 integration, Kubuntu default until superseded by SDDM0.3.2.2
LXQt GreeterQt-only Greeter for LXQt desktop (formerly Razor Greeter) until superseded by SDDM0.7
Qt GreeterReference implementation in Qt
Unity GreeterFormer Ubuntu default15.04.3

See also

External links