GNOME Display Manager

Display manager for the windowing systems X11 and Wayland

GNOME Display Manager

GNOME Display Manager 47 (its default appearance uses a dark theme)

Developer(s)| The GNOME Project (William Jon McCann, Brian Cameron, Ray Strode)
Stable release|

48.0[1]  / 17 March 2025; 3 months ago (17 March 2025)

Preview release|

41.alpha[2]  / 28 July 2021; 3 years ago (28 July 2021)

Repository|

* gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm.git

Written in| C
Operating system| Unix and Unix-like (Linux, BSD, Solaris)
Type| Login manager for Wayland, X display manager
License| GPL-2.0-or-later
Website| wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GDM

GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is a display manager (a graphical login manager) for the windowing systems X11 and Wayland.

The X Window System by default uses the XDM display manager. However, resolving XDM configuration issues typically involves editing a configuration file. GDM allows users to customize or troubleshoot settings without having to resort to a command line. Users can pick their session type on a per-login basis. GDM 2.38.0 is the last version that features customization with themes; subsequent releases do not support themes.

## Software architecture

[edit]

GDM is a display manager that implements all significant features required for managing attached and remote displays. GDM was written from scratch and does not contain any XDM or X Consortium code.[3]

### Components

[edit]

GDM comprises the following components:

* Chooser – a program used to select a remote host as the source for a remote display on the attached display (gdm-host-chooser)
* Greeter – the graphical login window (provided by GNOME Shell)
* Pluggable authentication module (PAM)
* X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP)

## Hidden features

[edit]

Until version 2.22,[4] GDM had a few Easter eggs, in the form of strings to be entered in the username box. These can be found in the source file "gui/guilogin.c", in a function named "evil".[5]

* Dancing login – type "Start Dancing" to start, and "Stop Dancing" to stop.
* (This requires the standard greeter ("GTK+ Greeter"), rather than the graphical one ("Themed Greeter")).
* "Gimme Random Cursor" – can be used repeatedly.
* This changes the mouse cursor to a randomly selected 1 of 77 different "cursor fonts" as defined in the X11 specification.
* "Require Quarter" (or "Require Quater", for backward compatibility with a typo in the original),[6] then log in normally – a dialog box that reads "Please insert 25 cents to log in." appears after entering the password. Clicking "OK" allows the login process to proceed as normal.

### Queen of England

[edit]

Some of the copyright notices of GDM refer to the "Queen of England", whom release announcements from version 2.2.1 also named as a maintainer.[7] Subsequently, developers realised that the title "Queen of England" has not existed since the Acts of Union of 1707.[8]

## See also

[edit]

* Free and open-source software portal

1. getty – a non-graphical login program
2. LightDM
3. SDDM (KDE Plasma 5 and KDE Plasma 6)
4. KDE Display Manager (KDE Plasma 4)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "48.0 · GNOME / gdm · GitLab". Retrieved 5 April 2025.
2. ^ "41.alpha". 28 July 2021.
3. ^ "GDM documentation".
4. ^ "migrate gui to new config framework with a chainsaw". 1 June 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
5. ^ "gdm – guilogin.c". Archived from the original on 31 May 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
6. ^ "GDM commit ee8de912". 5 March 2001. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
7. ^ "ANNOUNCE: GDM 2.2.1, the 'Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you' release". 4 May 2001. "Gdm2 was originally written by Martin K. Petersen <mkp mkp net>, and is now maintained by the Queen of England."
8. ^ "ANNOUNCE: GDM 2.5.90.2 (unstable), the "Nose poking" release". 4 March 2004.

## External links

[edit]

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