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# XDM

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From ArchWiki

Related articles

- Display manager

From xdm(8) § DESCRIPTION:

  Xdm manages a collection of X displays, which may be on the local host or remote servers. The design of xdm was guided by the needs of X terminals as well as The Open Group standard XDMCP, the X Display Manager Control Protocol. Xdm provides services similar to those provided by init, getty and login on character terminals: prompting for login name and password, authenticating the user, and running a "session."

XDM provides a simple and straightforward graphical login prompt.

## Installation

Install the xorg-xdm package. Then enable `xdm.service`.

If you would like to use an Arch Linux theme for XDM, you can optionally install the xdm-archlinux package. If installing the latter package, then do not enable `xdm.service`, but instead enable `xdm-archlinux.service`.

## Configuration

### Defining the session

Unlike many more modern display managers such as GDM or LightDM, XDM does not source available sessions from .desktop files located in the `/usr/share/xsessions` directory. As such, XDM does not have a 'session menu.' Instead, XDM will execute the `.xsession` file in the home directory.

For example, to start Xfce upon login, the `~/.xsession` file should look like this:

    startxfce4

Ensure that the `.xsession` file in your home directory is executable.

### Theming

For the exact meanings of the options discussed below, see xdm(8). The configuration file is located in `/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources`, notice that if you installed xdm-archlinux the configuration file will instead be located in `/etc/X11/xdm/archlinux/Xresources`.

#### Background wallpaper

Install qivAUR.

Create a directory to put wallpapers in, e.g `/usr/local/share/backgrounds` and then place them inside it.

Edit `/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0`. Change the `xconsole` command to `/usr/bin/qiv -zr /usr/local/share/backgrounds/*`

#### Font

- Edit `/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources`. Add/replace the following defines:

    xlogin*greetFont:  -adobe-helvetica-bold-o-normal--20------iso8859-1
    xlogin*font:       -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--14------iso8859-1
    xlogin*promptFont: -adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--14------iso8859-1
    xlogin*failFont:   -adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal--14------iso8859-1

#### Login dialog positioning

This configuration will move the login dialog to the bottom right of the screen.

    xlogin*frameWidth: 1
    xlogin*innerFramesWidth: 1
    xlogin*logoPadding: 0
    xlogin*geometry:    300x175-0-0

#### Removing the logo

Comment out the logo defines:

    #xlogin*logoFileName: /usr/share/xdm/pixmaps/xorg.xpm
    #xlogin*logoFileName: /usr/share/xdm/pixmaps/xorg-bw.xpm

### Multiple X sessions & Login in the window

With the XDMCP enabled, you can easily connect to local or remote XDM instance and run multiple X sessions simultaneously on the same machine:

    # X -query xdmcp-server-ip :2

This command will launch the second session in window using Xephyr:

    $ Xephyr -query xdmcp-server-ip :2

### Passwordless login

In order to enable passwordless login for XDM, add the line below to `/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources`:

    xlogin*allowNullPasswd: true

Category:

- Display managers