Configuring GDM (Gnome Display Manager)

 For configuring login screens in ubuntu 8.10 ,enough support is provided by  gdm (gnome display manager ) .Choosing a display screens at login, direct login to a desired username without prompting for username and password………
are some features provided by gnome display manager .
With the help of GDM, display can be configured to its maximum according to
the needs of the user.

Configuring gdm can be done either

•  by editting the configuration file of gdm 

•  by using gui provided by gdm

one thing to remembered is that,the user is supposed to have root permissions for configuring the GDM configuration file.
Editting configuration file
 The configuration file of the GDM has it’s path as follows
           
                    /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
User can hand-edit the file according to the given documentation which suits best to his needs.But editting the file by hand only ,will not result in change of display, also the GDM daemon has to be reported about the change.
For that the user would have to use the command

 gdmflexiserver –command=”UPDATE_CONFIG “

by doing this the GDM daemon recognizes the change . Now for the change to be applied ,the GDM has to be restarted . It can be done by

 invoke-rc.d gdm reload

or

 invoke-rc.d gdm restart

after restarting the GDM,the display manager reads the new editted configuration file and the required changes are applied then only.

GDM(Gnome Display Manager) GUI
For using the gui provided by GDM ,user can make use of command,

sudo  gdmsetup

which promts for root password.

  The gui for the GDM looks as below

here the user can select different themes provided for login screen

under the local tab

more attractive themes are available at

http://www.gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=150

Under the local tab itself , the user can configure the login display

and select the style for the login display themes.

Under the security tab ,the user can configure for automatic login

 

automatic login means that the user can be login without promting for user name and password.Hence a default user has to be chosen for automatic login.

Much more features of the GDM configuration can be explored and the display at boot time can be mastered by the user