Display manager
A display manager ( DM ), sometimes known as login manager , presents the user with a graphical login screen to start a GUI session, either X or Wayland .
A display manager is not mandatory. X or Wayland can be started from a shell in a VT , but a DM can provide extra or useful functionality.
For how to run X without a DM, see X without Display Manager .
Available software
Some display managers are listed below.
Some Wayland DMs below are found in the overlay wayland-desktop , but not yet merged to the official Portage tree.
| Name | Package | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDM | x11-misc/cdm | Console | Minimalistic. |
| GNOME/gdm | gnome-base/gdm | X / Wayland | Often used with GNOME. |
| greetd |
gui-apps/gtkgreet
gui-apps/tuigreet gui-apps/qtgreet |
Wayland | Frontends for greetd . TUIGreetd runs in console. |
| LightDM | x11-misc/lightdm | X | Lightweight, and customizable via greeters. |
| LXDM | lxde-base/lxdm | X | LXDE Display Manager. |
| Qingy | sys-apps/qingy | console | getty replacement. |
| SDDM | x11-misc/sddm | X / Wayland | Modern, fast DM aiming to be simple and beautiful. Highly customizable, eye candy display manager from KDE . |
| SLiM | x11-misc/slim | X | Requires only a few dependencies. |
| WDM | x11-misc/wdm | X | Modification of XDM. |
| XDM | x11-apps/xdm | X | X.Org's DM. |
Configuration
Before setting up and using a display manager, be sure that the chosen GUI environment, startx or Wayland , works without problems. If something does not work refer to the troubleshooting guides, such as Xorg/Guide .
In all 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 init system's appropriate 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. The following examples will set SDDM as the display manager, adjust as necessary for other display managers.
If gui-libs/display-manager-init is not present, emerge it with:
root
#
emerge --ask gui-libs/display-manager-init
The configuration file should be modified to use SDDM :
/etc/conf.d/display-manager
Set SDDM as the display manager
CHECKVT=7
DISPLAYMANAGER="sddm"
To start the chosen display manager on boot, add the display-manager to the system's default runlevel:
root
#
rc-update add display-manager default
To start the display-manager immediately, run:
root
#
rc-service display-manager start
systemd
If using systemd as the init system, first locate the chosen <display-manager>.service file.
To start SDDM on boot, enable the service:
root
#
systemctl enable sddm.service
To start SDDM immediately, run:
root
#
systemctl start sddm.service
See also
- Desktop environment — provides a list of desktop environments available in Gentoo.
- Login — logging in to a shell, and setting up the default environment.
- Window manager — manages the creation, manipulation, and destruction of on-screen windows and window decorations in Xorg .
- Xorg/Guide — explains what Xorg is, how to install it, and the various configuration options.
- X without Display Manager — describes how to start an X11 session without a display manager