[Solved] Enable Lightdm in LM 13 Maya

[pfjap.paco]

I prefer LightDM to MDM, so I tried to install it. However, the system fails to boot after installing LightDM, and seems to still be trying to run MDM in the boot sequence. This renders the system unbootable unless running

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure mdm

in the recovery session.

Has anybody found a way to run LightDM in Maya?

[esteban1uy]

LightDM... ugh!
Too much Ubuntu for my taste and really few configuration options. But if you want it, you can do it this way (Maya+Cinnamon):

Go to synaptic and install the packages lightdm and lightdm-gtk-greeter.
At certain point you'll be asked to choose the default session manager, select lightdm.
DO NOT REBOOT OR LOGOFF!
Now open nautilus with root privileges (sudo nautilus at a terminal), navigate to /etc/lightdm/ and edit the file lightdm.conf to look like this:

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[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter
user-session=cinnamon
allow-guest=false


And lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf to this:

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#
# background = Background file to use, either an image path or a color (e.g. #772953)
# theme-name = GTK+ theme to use
# font-name = Font to use
# xft-antialias = Whether to antialias Xft fonts (true or false)
# xft-dpi = Resolution for Xft in dots per inch (e.g. 96)
# xft-hintstyle = What degree of hinting to use (hintnone, hintslight, hintmedium, or hintfull)
# xft-rgba = Type of subpixel antialiasing (none, rgb, bgr, vrgb or vbgr)
# show-language-selector (true or false)
#
[greeter]
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint-maya/gelsan_green.png
theme-name=Mint-Z
icon-theme-name=Mint-X
font-name=Ubuntu 10
xft-antialias=true
xft-dpi=96
xft-hintstyle=slight
xft-rgba=rgb


Now you can reboot.

If you want autologin, just add the following lines to lightdm.conf (use your own user login name):

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autologin-user=YOUR_USER_LOGIN
autologin-user-timeout=0


[Rüssel]

LightDM... ugh!
Too much Ubuntu for my taste and really few configuration options. But if you want it, you can do it this way (Maya+Cinnamon):

Go to synaptic and install the packages lightdm and lightdm-gtk-greeter.
At certain point you'll be asked to choose the default session manager, select lightdm.
DO NOT REBOOT OR LOGOFF!
Now open nautilus with root privileges (sudo nautilus at a terminal), navigate to /etc/lightdm/ and edit the file lightdm.conf to look like this:

Code: Select all


[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter
user-session=cinnamon
allow-guest=false


And lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf to this:

Code: Select all

#
# background = Background file to use, either an image path or a color (e.g. #772953)
# theme-name = GTK+ theme to use
# font-name = Font to use
# xft-antialias = Whether to antialias Xft fonts (true or false)
# xft-dpi = Resolution for Xft in dots per inch (e.g. 96)
# xft-hintstyle = What degree of hinting to use (hintnone, hintslight, hintmedium, or hintfull)
# xft-rgba = Type of subpixel antialiasing (none, rgb, bgr, vrgb or vbgr)
# show-language-selector (true or false)
#
[greeter]
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint-maya/gelsan_green.png
theme-name=Mint-Z
icon-theme-name=Mint-X
font-name=Ubuntu 10
xft-antialias=true
xft-dpi=96
xft-hintstyle=slight
xft-rgba=rgb


Now you can reboot.

If you want autologin, just add the following lines to lightdm.conf (use your own user login name):

Code: Select all

autologin-user=YOUR_USER_LOGIN
autologin-user-timeout=0


Can you do this only in Maya + Cinnamon, or also in Maya + MATE the same way?

[esteban1uy]

Can you do this only in Maya + Cinnamon, or also in Maya + MATE the same way?

I don't know. That way I'm sure it works for Maya+Cinnamon.
For Maya+MATE I guess you should change:

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user-session=cinnamon

to:

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user-session=mate

But I'm not sure.

[cwwgateway]

Installing LightDM works on MATE. The greeter in ubuntu is unity-greeter, not lightdm-gtk-greeter. I'm not sure how to configure unity-greeter to have a different background, though.

[esteban1uy]

Installing LightDM works on MATE. The greeter in ubuntu is unity-greeter, not lightdm-gtk-greeter. I'm not sure how to configure unity-greeter to have a different background, though.

Well... unity-greeter uses the same background as the default user (as in Ubuntu) and it adds that horrid dotted screen overlay... and the infamous "Ubuntu 12.04" text below the password box!
I'm sorry, but I prefer the unbranded lightdm-gtk-greeter a thousand times (sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter).
Maybe I'm too much purist but I would hate to see a beautiful Mint Maya branded as Ubuntu, but of course, that's up to each one's taste.

[cwwgateway]

Installing LightDM works on MATE. The greeter in ubuntu is unity-greeter, not lightdm-gtk-greeter. I'm not sure how to configure unity-greeter to have a different background, though.

Well... unity-greeter uses the same background as the default user (as in Ubuntu) and it adds that horrid dotted screen overlay... and the infamous "Ubuntu 12.04" text below the password box!
I'm sorry, but I prefer the unbranded lightdm-gtk-greeter a thousand times (sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter).
Maybe I'm too much purist but I would hate to see a beautiful Mint Maya branded as Ubuntu, but of course, that's up to each one's taste.

I only say that because I assume the poster wanted LightDM the same way Ubuntu has it. The average user sees things and relates the name to what he sees. The gtk greater looks different than the lightdm that he has seen with ubuntu. Personally, I hate the Ubuntu lightdm just like you (Especially those dots - I hate those dots so much ) and I really like MDM.

[pfjap.paco]

Installing LightDM works on MATE. The greeter in ubuntu is unity-greeter, not lightdm-gtk-greeter. I'm not sure how to configure unity-greeter to have a different background, though.

Well... unity-greeter uses the same background as the default user (as in Ubuntu) and it adds that horrid dotted screen overlay... and the infamous "Ubuntu 12.04" text below the password box!
I'm sorry, but I prefer the unbranded lightdm-gtk-greeter a thousand times (sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter).
Maybe I'm too much purist but I would hate to see a beautiful Mint Maya branded as Ubuntu, but of course, that's up to each one's taste.

I only say that because I assume the poster wanted LightDM the same way Ubuntu has it. The average user sees things and relates the name to what he sees. The gtk greater looks different than the lightdm that he has seen with ubuntu. Personally, I hate the Ubuntu lightdm just like you (Especially those dots - I hate those dots so much ) and I really like MDM.

Oh goodness, no. Haha, I would hate having the Ubuntu logo all over my lovely Maya. I just prefer the much cleaner look of LightDM, but just so the information is out there, it's pretty easy to edit the unity-greeter using [sudo? try sudo if using plain dconf doesn't work] dconf (under com>canonical>unity-greeter) so I completely edited the thing to my tastes (Mint Logo, Maya wallpaper, black background, etc.) On that note though, has anybody gotten a hold of a Linux Mint 13 logo?

[Monsta]

Especially those dots - I hate those dots so much

If you mean these dotted lines in the user list, they can be easily removed by editing (as root of course)

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/usr/share/lightdm-gtk-greeter/greeter.ui

and removing the string that says

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<property name="enable_grid_lines">horizontal</property>

Of course, you have to be aware that it's a hack and the file may be overwritten on the next lightdm update.

[cwwgateway]

Especially those dots - I hate those dots so much

If you mean these dotted lines in the user list, they can be easily removed by editing (as root of course)

Code: Select all

/usr/share/lightdm-gtk-greeter/greeter.ui

and removing the string that says

Code: Select all

<property name="enable_grid_lines">horizontal</property>

Of course, you have to be aware that it's a hack and the file may be overwritten on the next lightdm update.

Thanks. I still prefer MDM, though.

[gfreeau]

I'm back to using lightdm with mint backgrounds, I'm not a fan of the theme for linuxmint MDM, it should have a user list by default, typing in your username is unnecessary. I saw a fix for this in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=190&t=101338&p=584179, but if you add it in, you would need to edit many other elements as they rely on the blank space to print messages etc.

I converted several old mdm things from gnome-look and couldn't find anything I liked, is anyone using an mdm theme that is simple, mint based themed with a user list?

[Rehdon]

MDM in LM 13 sure looks like a regression when compared to LightDM in LM 13, I guess the choice was done on pure technical grounds (namely, LightDM lacks configurability ... but IMHO the average user doesn't need a lot when it comes to the 'choose user' screen) but LM 13 now looks uglier and less user friendly (LightDM: bigger font, better graphics, you only had to type your password).

Hope the devs will choose a better theme and default MDM settings for the next LM version, or go back to LightDM.

Rehdon

[cwwgateway]

MDM in LM 13 sure looks like a regression when compared to LightDM in LM 13, I guess the choice was done on pure technical grounds (namely, LightDM lacks configurability ... but IMHO the average user doesn't need a lot when it comes to the 'choose user' screen) but LM 13 now looks uglier and less user friendly (LightDM: bigger font, better graphics, you only had to type your password).

Hope the devs will choose a better theme and default MDM settings for the next LM version, or go back to LightDM.

Rehdon

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Personally, I like the default MDM so much better than LightDM. I happen to have a different theme, but I really like the default theme too. Maybe you dislike it, but a lot of mint users really like it, so it was done for the looks as well as the customization. It's like saying LightDM was a regression compared to GDM - Some people liked GDM better, but most Ubuntu users liked LightDM better. I'm not saying that you should like MDM, and I'm happy that you really like LightDM, but saying that "MDM in LM 13 sure looks like a regression when compared to LightDM in LM 13, I guess the choice was done on pure technical grounds [...] but LM 13 now looks uglier and less user friendly" is insensitive. If you had said something about in your opinion, I'd be happy, but to say that it "sure looks like a regression" is saying that it's a regression for everybody, and that's kind of insensitive. Again, I'm happy if you feel it's a regression for you, but to say that it is a regression for everybody is not correct.

[Monsta]

BTW, I didn't realize right away that lightdm always uses the default icon theme, so specifying

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icon-theme-name=Mint-X

in the configuration file is quite useless. At first I just couldn't figure out what exactly I don't like in that strange "computer" icon

[pfjap.paco]

Have any of you tried out eOS's Pantheon Greeter yet?



^this^ is why I love LightDM

[cwwgateway]

Have any of you tried out eOS's Pantheon Greeter yet?



^this^ is why I love LightDM

I have to say, that looks pretty good.

[Konstigt]

Don't know how to subscribe to a topic in this forum sw so I reply with a post to do it..

[cwwgateway]

Don't know how to subscribe to a topic in this forum sw so I reply with a post to do it..

When you are looking at the thread, go to the bottom of the page and click "subscribe to thread."

[kmb42vt]

Just to add to the conversation, I finally had to switch login managers altogether since MDM kept crashing to a blank screen at each boot/reboot. Apparently, there's a problem with the MDM login screen disappearing after 1 or 2 seconds for those of us who run the proprietary Nvidia driver. It doesn't happen with the Nouveau driver (which I won't use) and it doesn't happen with any other login manager that I've tried (GDM and LightDM). I finally settled on LightDM despite the Ubuntu branding along with installing "light-themes" just so the LightDM login screen was themed properly.

I tried everything I could think of to modify LightDM to get rid of the horizontal dotted grid and get rid of the "Ubuntu 12.04" text at the bottom left of the login screen but to no avail (I don't particularly like how switching to the "lightdm-gtk-greeter" looks). Using Dconf doesn't work (even as root) and modifying the "/etc/lightdm" files doesn't work either--the LightDM login screen always remains the same despite any modification I try.

Ah well, no big deal. I may eventually go with GDM as it more resembles the original Linux Mint login screen of versions past despite the black background. I just wish MDM would be fixed so it works with the Nvidia driver installed.

[Monsta]

get rid of the "Ubuntu 12.04" text at the bottom left of the login screen

Not very hard, actually: viewtopic.php?f=211&t=103684
Just remember it's a hack which may very well be reverted on the next package update.

Using Dconf doesn't work (even as root)

It's not supposed to work as root in this case. You need to edit these settings as a user named "lightdm".

and modifying the "/etc/lightdm" files doesn't work either--the LightDM login screen always remains the same despite any modification I try.

Unity-greeter doesn't seem to care about anything in /etc/lightdm.