LightDM Display Manager 2022 Status Update: Not Much Going On

[phoronix]

Phoronix: LightDM Display Manager 2022 Status Update: Not Much Going On

From 2011 to 2017 while Ubuntu had been using the LightDM display manager developed by Canonical, their engineers were actively supporting it and making new releases to coincide with new Ubuntu Linux updates. But with Ubuntu now using GDM as its default desktop display manager, there hasn't been a new LightDM release in three years and not much in the way of upstream activity. Today Canonical's lead LightDM maintainer issued a status update for the project...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=LightDM-2022-Status-Update

[FireBurn]

I fear SDDM is going the same way, looks like nothing happens for months on end, then there will be a flurry of activity, then nothing again, not been a new release since 2020

[uid313]

I don't mind, I use GNOME Display Manager (GDM) anyway.
I hope to see fingerprint support and support for FIDO2/U2F authentication devices.

[reba]

I don't mind, too, as I start my desktop sessions (Wayland and X11) from the text console and thus have no need for a graphical login-screen (SDDM, GDM, LightDM, etc), which is just another launcher and brings its own problems (no Wayland but just X11, no touchpad-tap-for-click, different keyboard layout, etc.); it's a desktop environment for launching a desktop environment.

[EvilHowl]

I don't mind, too, as I start my desktop sessions (Wayland and X11) from the text console and thus have no need for a graphical login-screen (SDDM, GDM, LightDM, etc), which is just another launcher and brings its own problems (no Wayland but just X11, no touchpad-tap-for-click, different keyboard layout, etc.); it's a desktop environment for launching a desktop environment.

Well, in the case of GNOME, you can actually change those settings using gsettings. Do you know the best thing about modern display managers? They run as their own isolated user instead of running as root.

So, for example, if you want to enable tap to click on GDM, you just have to enable it on the gdm user. It's not as user-friendly as I would like, but it works.

sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true

[wooque]

It just works and it doesn't need more "development". They could only ruin it.

[JPFSanders]

It just works and it doesn't need more "development". They could only ruin it.

My thoughts exactly, while not perfect LightDM does the job well with no fuss and with adequate customisability, it is a great combo with XFCE.

[kvuj]

I fear SDDM is going the same way, looks like nothing happens for months on end, then there will be a flurry of activity, then nothing again, not been a new release since 2020

Yeah... I kinda wish the KDE devs wrote their own from scratch. So many of their PRs get ignored. It would allow them to make it wayland friendly too (and possibly QT6 compatible considering their huge ongoing effort).

Though it would probably suck for users to get yet another breaking change (also possibly with theming).

[schmidtbag]

I also agree that if it works, what's the point of further updates? It's just a display manager, and (as the name suggests) a light one.
I personally prefer SDDM, though my only gripe with that is how it doesn't use Wayland. This is not a big gripe though, since it allows me to start a Wayland session, which matters more to me.

[archkde]

Yeah... I kinda wish the KDE devs wrote their own from scratch. So many of their PRs get ignored. It would allow them to make it wayland friendly too (and possibly QT6 compatible considering their huge ongoing effort).

Though it would probably suck for users to get yet another breaking change (also possibly with theming).

From scratch doesn't make any sense at all, forking SDDM would be a much better starting point.