LightDM

---

title: "LightDM" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["canonical-(company)", "ubuntu", "software-that-uses-gtk", "x-display-managers"] description: "Display manager for X windowing systems" topic_path: "general/canonical-company" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightDM" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Display manager for X windowing systems ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

Field	Value
name	LightDM
screenshot	ElementaryOS Pantheon Greeter 5.0 screenshot.png
caption	LightDM in elementaryOS with its default "Pantheon Greeter 5.0" front-end
author	Robert Ancell
developer	{{Plainlist
released
latest release version
latest release date
programming language	C
operating system	Linux, OpenIndiana
size	1 MB
language	50 languages 50% complete translations of LightDM itself and actively developed Greeters with detailed stats available. --
genre	X display manager
license	GPL-3.0-or-later
website
::

| name = LightDM | logo = | screenshot = ElementaryOS Pantheon Greeter 5.0 screenshot.png | caption = LightDM in elementaryOS with its default "Pantheon Greeter 5.0" front-end | author = Robert Ancell | developer = {{Plainlist|

• Robert Ancell
• David Edmundson | released = | discontinued = | latest release version = | latest release date = | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | programming language = C | operating system = Linux, OpenIndiana | platform = | size = 1 MB | language = 50 languages 50% complete translations of LightDM itself and actively developed Greeters with detailed stats available. -- | genre = X display manager | license = GPL-3.0-or-later | website =

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

LightDM is the default display manager for Edubuntu, Xubuntu and Mythbuntu since the 11.10 release, for Lubuntu since the 12.04 release until 16.10, for Kubuntu beginning with 12.10 until 15.04 for Linux Mint 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.

Available greeters

::data[format=table]

LightDM Greeters in active development	Name	Key feature(s)	Version	Website	Dormant LightDM Greeters	Name	Key feature(s)	Version	Website
Arctica Greeter	Greeter for Arctica, fork of Unity Greeter	0.99.1.4
Deepin Greeter	Greeter for Deepin	5.0.0
GTK Greeter	url=https://launchpad.net/lightdm-gtk-greeter	title=LightDM GTK Greeter in Launchpad	date=29 November 2011	publisher=Launchpad.net	access-date=2012-12-16}} former Lubuntu default, Xubuntu default	2.0.8
Mini Greeter	Minimalist, single-user. INI configuration	0.5.1
Pantheon Greeter	url=http://www.elementaryos.org/journal/luna-beta-1-released	title=Hello, Luna Beta 1 | elementary	publisher=Elementaryos.org	date=2012-11-14	access-date=2013-05-29}}	7.0.0
Qt5 Greeter	Greeter for Qt 5	0.11.1
Slick Greeter	Greeter for Linux Mint, fork of Unity Greeter	1.4.1
WebEngine Greeter	QtWebEngine-based, C++ rewrite of Web Greeter 3.0	—
Web Greeter	QtWebEngine-based, continuing Antergos Web Greeter 3.0, allows to create web based themes	3.4.1
WebKit2 Greeter	Easy theming	2.0.0
Antergos Web Greeter	Default greeter for Antergos. Uses HTML/JavaScript for theming	2.2.5
Crowd Greeter	Demonstration for an OpenGL-based Greeter	0.0.2
GTK Builder Greeter	An alternative implementation from LXDE for GTK based on GtkBuilder featuring WYSIWYG theme editing with Glade Interface Designer.	title=Status of LXDE Components	url=https://wiki.lxde.org/en/Status_of_LXDE_Components	publisher=LXDE Team	access-date=17 December 2012	archive-date=17 October 2019	archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191017180708/https://wiki.lxde.org/en/Status_of_LXDE_Components	url-status=dead }}
KDE Greeter	Plasma 4 integration, Kubuntu default until superseded by SDDM	0.3.2.2
LXQt Greeter	Qt-only Greeter for LXQt desktop (formerly Razor Greeter) until superseded by SDDM	0.7
Qt Greeter	Reference implementation in Qt	—
Unity Greeter	Former Ubuntu default	15.04.3
::

References

References

1. (2011-05-13). "Translations: Light Display Manager". Translations.launchpad.net.
2. (2013-05-08). "Translations: LightDM GTK Greeter". Translations.launchpad.net.
3. (2012-01-24). "Translations: Unity Greeter". Translations.launchpad.net.
4. "The Light Display Manager (LightDM)".
5. (12 May 2011). "Ubuntu 11.10 To Switch From GDM To LightDM".
6. Fischer, Matt. (2012-02-07). "» So You Want to Write a LightDM Greeter… Matt Fischer's Blog". Mattfischer.com.
7. (3 May 2022). "Readme Manual of LightDM".
8. "LightDM". Arch Linux Wiki.
9. "Ubuntu 11.10 ReleaseNotes". Canonical.
10. "Xubuntu 11.10 Release Notes". Canonical.
11. "BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes - Ubuntu Wiki".
12. "Lubuntu 12.04 ReleaseNotes". Canonical.
13. (11 May 2014). "Discussion about greeter (Log in) application for 16.10 Qt versi... : Blueprints : Lubuntu Next".
14. (20 August 2012). "RFC] Merging LightDM into KDE Workspaces". mail.kde.org.
15. Bhartiya, Swapnil. "Kubuntu 15.04 With Plasma 5.3 - A Totally Different Kubuntu - Linux.com". Linux.com - The source for Linux Information.
16. [https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sonya_cinnamon_whatsnew.php New features in Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon] {{Webarchive. link. (2020-11-12 (go down or search for LightDM), retrieved 2017-07-02)
17. (12 May 2011). "Ubuntu adopts LightDM, login screens to get more exciting". Geek.com.
18. (12 May 2011). "LightDM, or: an examination of a misunderstanding of the problem".
19. "The Arctica Project". The Arctica Project.
20. "Arctica Greeter". Github.
21. "dde-session-ui". Github.
22. (29 November 2011). "LightDM GTK Greeter in Launchpad". Launchpad.net.
23. "GTK LightDM Greeter for Xubuntu". Github.
24. "Mini Greeter Releases". GitHub.
25. (2012-11-14). "Hello, Luna Beta 1 | elementary". Elementaryos.org.
26. "LightDM Greeter for Pantheon". Github.
27. "LightDM Greeter for Qt 5". Github.
28. "Slick Greeter Releases". GitHub.
29. "Antergos Web Greeter 3.0". GitHub.
30. "Web Greeter 3.4.1 release". GitHub.
31. "Antergos {{!}} Your Linux. Always Fresh. Never Frozen.".
32. "lightdm-webkit2-greeter - master".
33. "Antergos/web-greeter".
34. ~lightdm-team/crowd-greeter/trunk. (2011-07-27). "~lightdm-team/crowd-greeter/trunk : contents of NEWS at revision 33". Bazaar.launchpad.net.
35. (2011-09-07). "LightDM Crowd Greeter". YouTube.
36. (2011-09-08). "Crowd Greeter : "LightDM Development Team" team". Launchpad.net.
37. "Status of LXDE Components". LXDE Team.
38. Edmundson, David. (2012-07-21). "LightDM-KDE 0.2.0". Sharpley.org.uk.
39. "Rationales". Static.davidedmundson.co.uk.
40. "LightDM-KDE File Archive". [[KDE]].
41. Razor-qt. "razorqt-lightdm-greeter". Github.com.
42. (2013-10-30). "[Lxde-list] CALL FOR TESTERS: LXQt now available for testing". SourceForge.
43. (31 May 2011). "Unity Greeter". Launchpad.net.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::