LightDM

LightDM is a free and open-source X display manager that aims to be lightweight, fast, extensible and multi-desktop.^[5] It can use various front-ends to draw the user interface,^[6] also called Greeters.^[7] It also supports Wayland.^[8][9]

LightDM

LightDM in elementaryOS with its default "Pantheon Greeter 5.0" front-end
Original author(s)	Robert Ancell
Developer(s)	Robert Ancell David Edmundson
Initial release	September 10, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-09-10)
Stable release	1.32.0[1]  / 18 July 2022; 2 years ago (18 July 2022)
Repository	github.com/canonical/lightdm
Written in	C
Operating system	Linux, OpenIndiana
Size	1 MB
Available in	>50 languages[2][3][4]
Type	X display manager
License	GPL-3.0-or-later
Website	github.com/CanonicalLtd/lightdm

LightDM is the default display manager for Edubuntu, Xubuntu and Mythbuntu since the 11.10 release,^[10][11][12] for Lubuntu since the 12.04 release^[13] until 16.10,^[14] for Kubuntu beginning with 12.10^[15] until 15.04^[16] for Linux Mint^[17] 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.^[18][19]

Available greeters

LightDM Greeters in active development
Name	Key feature(s)	Version	Website
Arctica Greeter	Greeter for Arctica,[20] fork of Unity Greeter	0.99.1.4[21]	github.com/ArcticaProject/arctica-greeter
Deepin Greeter	Greeter for Deepin	5.0.0[22]	github.com/linuxdeepin/dde-session-ui
GTK Greeter	Greeter for Xubuntu and former GTK reference implementation,[23] former Lubuntu default,[13] Xubuntu default[11]	2.0.8[24]	github.com/Xubuntu/lightdm-gtk-greeter
Mini Greeter	Minimalist, single-user. INI configuration	0.5.1[25]	github.com/prikhi/lightdm-mini-greeter
Pantheon Greeter	Greeter for elementary OS[26]	7.0.0[27]	github.com/elementary/greeter
Qt5 Greeter	Greeter for Qt 5	0.11.1[28]	github.com/rezso/lightdm-qt5-greeter
Slick Greeter	Greeter for Linux Mint, fork of Unity Greeter	1.4.1[29]	github.com/linuxmint/slick-greeter
WebEngine Greeter	QtWebEngine-based, C++ rewrite of Web Greeter 3.0	—	github.com/matijaskala/lightdm-webengine-greeter
Web Greeter	QtWebEngine-based, continuing Antergos Web Greeter 3.0,[30] allows to create web based themes	3.4.1[31]	github.com/JezerM/web-greeter
WebKit2 Greeter	Easy theming[6]	2.0.0[32]	gitlab.com/tearch-linux/applications-and-tools/lightdm-webkit2-greeter
Dormant LightDM Greeters
Name	Key feature(s)	Version	Website
Antergos Web Greeter	Default greeter for Antergos.[33] Uses HTML/Javascript for theming[34]	2.2.5[35]	github.com/Antergos/web-greeter
Crowd Greeter	Demonstration for an OpenGL-based Greeter[36][37]	0.0.2[38]	launchpad.net/crowd-greeter
GTK Builder Greeter	An alternative implementation from LXDE for GTK based on GtkBuilder featuring WYSIWYG theme editing with Glade Interface Designer.	0.2.0[39]	lxde.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lxde%2Fldm-gtk-builder-greeter%3Ba%3Dsummary
KDE Greeter	Plasma 4 integration,[40][41] Kubuntu default[15] until superseded by SDDM[16]	0.3.2.2[42]	github.com/KDE/lightdm
LXQt Greeter	Qt-only Greeter for LXQt desktop (formerly Razor Greeter[43]) until superseded by SDDM[44]	0.7	github.com/surlykke/qt-lightdm-greeter
Qt Greeter	Reference implementation in Qt	—	launchpad.net/lightdm-qt-greeter
Unity Greeter	Former Ubuntu default[6]	15.04.3[45]	launchpad.net/unity-greeter

See also

• Linux portal
• Free and open-source software portal

• SDDM
• XDM (display manager)
• GNOME Display Manager