Gnome Display Manager Reference Manual

Martin K. Petersen

George Lebl

Brian Cameron

Bill Haneman

This manual describes version 2.20.4 of the GNOME Display Manager. It was last updated on 03/10/2008.

Revision History
Revision 0.02007-01

Abstract

GDM is the GNOME Display Manager, a graphical login program.


Table of Contents

Terms and Conventions Used in This Manual
Overview
Introduction
Interface Stability
The GDM Daemon
Different Display Types
XDMCP
Securing Remote Connection Through SSH
The GTK+ Greeter
The Themed Greeter
The GDM Face Browser
Logging
Accessing Files
GDM Performance
Security
PAM
utmp/wtmp
The GDM User
X Server Authentication Scheme
Firewall Security
GDM Security With NFS
XDMCP Security
XDMCP Access Control
RBAC (Role Based Access Control)
Support for ConsoleKit
Using gdmsetup To Configure GDM
Local Tab
Remote Tab
Accessibility Tab
Security Tab
Users Tab
Configuration
The Script Directories
The Configuration Files - GDM System Defaults Configuration File and GDM Custom Configuraiton File
Per User Configuration
Controlling GDM
Commands
The FIFO protocol
Socket Protocol
GDM Commands
GDM User Commands
GDM Root User Commands
GDM Internal Commands
Themed Greeter
Theme Overview
Detailed Description of Theme XML format
Accessibility
Accessibility Configuration
Solaris Specific Features
Using GDM on Solaris
Solaris Configuration
Solaris /etc/logindevperm
Solaris Automatic Login
Solaris RBAC support for Shutdown, Reboot, and Suspend
Other Solaris Features
Example Configurations
Defining Custom Commands
Troubleshooting
GDM Will Not Start
GDM Will Not Access User Settings
License

Terms and Conventions Used in This Manual

This manual describes version 2.20.4 of the GNOME Display Manager. It was last updated on 03/10/2008.

Chooser - A program used to select a remote host for managing a display remotely on the attached display (gdmchooser).

Configurator - The configuration application (gdmsetup).

GDM - Gnome Display Manager. Used to describe the software package as a whole. Sometimes also referred to as GDM2.

gdm - The Gnome Display Manager daemon (gdm).

Greeter - The graphical login window (gdmlogin or gdmgreeter).

GTK+ Greeter - The standard login window (gdmlogin).

PAM - Pluggable Authentication Mechanism

Themed Greeter - The themable login window ( gdmgreeter).

XDMCP - X Display Manage Protocol

Paths that start with a word in angle brackets are relative to the installation prefix. I.e. <share>/pixmaps/ refers to <share>/pixmaps if GDM was configured with --prefix=/usr. Normally also note that GDM is installed with --sysconfigdir=<etc>/X11, meaning any path to which we refer to as <etc>/gdm/PreSession usually means <etc/X11>/gdm/PreSession. Note that for interoperability it is recommended that you use a --prefix of /usr and a --sysconfdir of <etc>/X11.