LightDM

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LightDM is a cross-desktop display manager whose aim is to be the standard display manager for the X server. The key features (as listed by upstream) are:

• A well-defined greeter API allowing multiple GUIs
• Support for all display manager use cases, with plugins where appropriate
• Low code complexity
• Fast performance

Installation

Install LightDM by installing a greeter. The following greeters are available:

• x11-misc/lightdm-gtk-greeter - A GTK+ based greeter for GNOME or Xfce
• x11-misc/lightdm-kde - A KDE greeter
• razorqt-base/razorqt-lightdm-greeter - A Razor-qt greeter

Installing e.g the GTK+ greeter, will also pull in x11-misc/lightdm itself. The USE flags of lightdm are:

→ Information about USE flags

USE flag	Default	Recommended	Description
introspection	Yes		Use dev-libs/gobject-introspection for introspection
qt4	Yes		Adds support for the Qt GUI/Application Toolkit version 4.x

The USE flags of lightdm-gtk-greeter are:

→ Information about USE flags

USE flag	Default	Recommended	Description
branding	No		Enable Gentoo specific branding

root # emerge --ask lightdm-gtk-greeter

Configuration

The configuration file for LightDM itself is: /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

GTK+

/etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

KDE

/etc/lightdm/lightdm-kde-greeter.conf

The LightDM KDE greeter also provides a KCM (KDE Control Module), which appears in the System Settings under System Administration → Login Screen (LightDM)

Due to LightDM currently assuming GTK+ greeter as the default, in case you want to use the KDE greeter, you need to explicitly specify it in the /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:

File/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

[SeatDefaults]
…
greeter-session=lightdm-kde-greeter

RazorQt

The RazorQt greeter currently does not offer any configuration options.

Boot service

Set LightDM as your default display manager:

File/etc/conf.d/xdm

DISPLAYMANAGER="lightdm"

To start LightDM on boot, add xdm to your default runlevel:

root # rc-update add xdm default

To start LightDM now:

root # /etc/init.d/xdm start