Display manager

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Not to be confused with window manager.

Resources

Wikipedia

A display manager(DM), sometimes known as login manager, presents the user with a graphical login screen to start an X server session.

Available software

Alphabetical list of some display managers in the official Gentoo tree:

Name	Package	Description
CDM (The Console Display Manager)	x11-misc/cdm	The Console Display Manager
GDM (GNOME Display Manager)	gnome-base/gdm	GNOME Display Manager
LightDM (A Lightweight Display Manager)	x11-misc/lightdm	A lightweight display manager
LXDM (LXDE Display Manager)	lxde-base/lxdm	LXDE Display Manager
TUIGreet (Terminal UI Greeter for greetd)	gui-apps/tuigreet	The Terminal based UI Greeter
GTKGreet (GTK based greeter for greetd)	gui-apps/gtkgreet	The GTK based Greeter
Qingy (Qingy Is Not GettY)	sys-apps/qingy	A DirectFB getty replacement
SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager)	x11-misc/sddm	Simple Desktop Display Manager
SLiM (Simple Login Manager)	x11-misc/slim	Simple Login Manager
WDM (WINGs Display Manager)	x11-misc/wdm	WINGs Display Manager
XDM (X Display Manager)	x11-apps/xdm	X.Org's X Display Manager

Warning
Before setting up and using a display manager, be sure that startx works without problems. If something does not work refer to the Xorg/Guide.

Configuration

In major Linux operating systems display managers are started automatically on boot. In order for this to happen automatically a script must be added to the proper init system's runlevel. Examples for OpenRC and systemd are provided below.

OpenRC

Under most circumstances the OpenRC init system (Gentoo's default init system) will be used to start the display manager.
Historically, the XDM init script handled the starting of the display manager.
If you are running unstable you should shift to the new gui-libs/display-manager-init provider which is the replacement for XDM init.

With new display-manager-init

The following examples will set SDDM to be the default display manager. Adjust as necessary for other display managers.

FILE /etc/conf.d/display-managerSetting SDDM as the default display manager

CHECKVT=7
DISPLAYMANAGER="sddm"

To start SDDM on boot, add the display-manager init script to the system's default runlevel:

root #rc-update add display-manager default

To start SDDM immediately, run:

root #rc-service display-manager start

With old XDM init

The following examples will set SDDM to be the default display manager. Adjust as necessary for other display managers.

FILE /etc/conf.d/xdmSetting SDDM as the default display manager

DISPLAYMANAGER="sddm"

To start SDDM on boot, add the XDM init script to the system's default runlevel:

root #rc-update add xdm default

To start SDDM immediately, run:

root #rc-service xdm start

systemd

If using systemd as the init system, first locate a .service file.

To start SDDM on boot, enable the following service:

root #systemctl enable sddm.service

To start SDDM immediately run this command:

root #systemctl start sddm.service