GNOME Display Manager

Last updated

GNOME Display Manager
Developer(s) The GNOME Project (William Jon McCann, Brian Cameron, Ray Strode)
Stable release
48.0 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 17 March 2025;3 months ago (17 March 2025)
Preview release
41.alpha [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 28 July 2021;3 years ago (28 July 2021)
Repository
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   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

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

Contents

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

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

GDM comprises the following components:

Hidden features

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]

Queen of England

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

  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

  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.