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How to Remove Guest Session in Ubuntu 16.04 Login Screen

Last updated: April 14, 2016

Remove Guest Session

This is a quick guide for beginners that shows how to remove / disable the Guest account login from Ubuntu 16.04 Unity Greeter.

LightDM configuration files are located in /usr/share/lightdm and /etc/lightdm. Disabling Guest account can be easily done by adding a rule into one of the two directories. And below I made a change in /etc/lightdm:

1. Open terminal from Unity Dash, or via Ctrl+Alt+T combination key.

When it opens, paste below command and run to create a sub folder:

sudo mkdir /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d

lightdmconf

Type in your password (no visual feedback on typing) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Running below command to create a “50-no-guest.conf” file under this folder and write the rule allow-guest=false.

sudo sh -c 'printf "[SeatDefaults]\nallow-guest=false\n" > /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-no-guest.conf'

allow-guest

Now restart your computer and the Guest session disappeared.

Guest Session Removed

3. To revert the changes, just remove the configuration file via command:

sudo rm /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-no-guest.conf

That’s it. Enjoy!

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    3 responses to How to Remove Guest Session in Ubuntu 16.04 Login Screen

    1. Michael Edwards May 27, 2016 at 4:46 am

      On my install of Ubuntu 16.04 (amd64) the location of the lightdm.conf.d directory is in /usr/share/lightdm.. so use the following command:

      sudo sh -c ‘printf “[SeatDefaults]\nallow-guest=false\n” > /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-no-guest.conf’

      and to remove:

      sudo rm /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-no-guest.conf

    2. speedstream June 22, 2016 at 12:55 am

      Hi Guys,

      On the latest official release in Ubuntu 16.04, they changed
      [SeatDefaults] to [Seat:*]
      Using the first one gives nothing or a bug.

      That change in the syntax can be checked in the other files in
      /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/

      If other files show [Seat:*] instead of [SeatDefaults], the 50-no-guest.conf file is to be filled up as following:

      [Seat:*]
      allow-guest=false

      That change was initially found by Thee Mahn, builder of Linux Ultimate Edition. Latest version is 5.0 and I suggest anybody to have a blink on it.

      Hope this will help.

      • Anoop August 26, 2016 at 4:47 am

        Great ! .This one worked. The [Seat:*] was a new changed. Thankfully some had noticed. Thanks for the help.