GNOME Display Manager
 GNOME Display Manager 3 (its default appearance uses a dark theme) | |
| Developer(s) | The GNOME Project (William Jon McCann, Brian Cameron, Ray Strode) |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 47.0[1] 
/ 14 September 2024 |
| Preview release | 41.alpha[2]
/ 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 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]
- getty – a non-graphical login program
- LightDM
- SDDM (KDE Plasma 5)
- KDE Display Manager (KDE Plasma 4)
References
[edit]- ^ "GNOME Release Galendar".
- ^ "41.alpha". 28 July 2021.
- ^ "GDM documentation".
- ^ "migrate gui to new config framework with a chainsaw". 1 June 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
- ^ "gdm – guilogin.c". Archived from the original on 31 May 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- ^ "GDM commit ee8de912". 5 March 2001. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "ANNOUNCE: GDM 2.5.90.2 (unstable), the "Nose poking" release". 4 March 2004.
External links
[edit]
| Core Applications | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extras |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Components |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Community | |||||||||||||||||
| People | |||||||||||||||||
| Architecture |  | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extensions | |||||||||||||||
| Components and notable implementations |
| ||||||||||||||
| Standards | |||||||||||||||
| Applications | |||||||||||||||