mikaela.github.io/_posts/2015-10-17-antergos_change_login_dm.md

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---
layout: post
comments: true
title: "Changing Display Manager (login screen) with Antergos"
category: [english]
tags: [arch, linux, display manager, antergos]
---
*Also applies to Arch & other distributions based on it, how do you change
the display manager, aka login screen.*
* `--needed` makes pacman not install packages that are already installed.
* uncommented line = line that doesn't begin with `#`.
* to change DM you don't need to reboot, you can also
`sudo systemctl stop olddm` and `sudo systemctl start newdm`, but this
logs you out.
* my personal recommendation is using LightDM if it works for you,
otherwise sddm. I personally use LightDM, because sddm is missing
support for `sudo passwd -de user` [sddm/sddm#472](https://github.com/sddm/sddm/issues/472)
## LightDM gtk greeter
*Most of issues with LightDM seem to be caused by the Antergos greeter so
I also tell how to change it to lightdm-gtk-greeter.*
* `sudo pacman --needed -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter accountsservice numlockx`
Edit the file `/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf` and find the uncommented line
that starts with `greeter-session=` and change it to
`greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter`.
If you have keyboard with [numpad] you might want to enable Num Lock by
default by finding the uncommented line starting with
`greeter-setup-script=` and changing it to
`greeter-setup-script=/usr/bin/numlockx on`. If there isn't uncommented
line anywhere in the file, just uncomment one or add it under the commented
line.
Then enable it by running `sudo systemctl enable -f lightdm` and reboot.
## sddm
* `sudo pacman --needed -S sddm`
SDDM is simple display manager for all desktop environments and is
successor of KDM which is the KDE Display Manager.
To create a config file and enable it for next reboot:
```
sddm --example-config | sudo tee /etc/sddm.conf
sudo systemctl enable -f sddm
```
The lines you might want to change are the one starting with `Nucmlock=`
and I recommend changing it to `Numlock=on` if you have the [numpad]. The
other line starts with `Current=` and is used to select the current theme.
Available themes can be seen with `ls /usr/share/sddm/themes`.
KDE users might also want to install `sddm-kcm` which gives GUI
for controlling sddm.
## gdm
* `sudo pacman --needed -S gdm`
The last display manager I am mentioning is the Gnome Display Manager and
is only for Gnome users and I am not so familiar with it and I believe
using it is just `sudo systemctl enable -f gdm`.
[numpad]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/numpad