How to Remove white dots from Ubuntu 13.10 LightDM login screen

Last updated: October 7, 2013

There’re lots of white dots on default LightDM login screen, which is quite annoying. This quick tip shows you how to remove them in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy.

See the screenshot before and after:

login screen with white dots

login screen with white dots

login screen without white dots

To get started:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run:

1. Run command to allow user lightdm to create a connection to the X server:

sudo xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm

2. Then switch to user lightdm in the terminal window.

sudo su lightdm -s /bin/bash

3. Finally set draw grid (white dots) feature to false:

gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter draw-grid false

That’s it.

If you’re not comfortable with command console. You can use Ubuntu-Tweak, it has an option to turn off this feature under Tweaks -> Login Settings -> unlock -> turn off draw grid.

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1