GDM

GDM (GNOME Display Manager)s

GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is a display manager used in GNOME desktop environments to start the graphical session and allow users to log in, providing a graphical login screen and launching the chosen desktop environment after authentication.

What is GDM?

GDM (GNOME Display Manager) is a display manager used in Linux desktop environments running the GNOME stack. It provides a graphical login interface that users see when they first start up their computer, allowing them to enter their user credentials and launch their chosen desktop environment or window manager.

Some key features and capabilities of GDM include:

• Provides a visually attractive graphical login screen with the GNOME look and feel
• Allows users to log in by entering their username and password
• Supports setting an user profile picture which is displayed on the login screen
• Secure authentication integrates with Linux PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)
• Stores user credentials safely using shadow passwords
• Supports automatic and manual user login, password changing, remote login, etc.
• Highly customizable greeter theme using GNOME theming system
• Advanced configuration options via dconf database editor
• Displays session menu allowing users to choose GNOME desktop environment, window manager etc.
• Set as the default display manager on major GNOME-based Linux distributions

In summary, GDM provides essential login screen and session launching capabilities for the GNOME desktop experience with ample security, customization and integration features.

GDM Features

Official Links