Install and Use LightDM GTK+ Greater 1.7.1 in Ubuntu 14.04/13.10

Last updated: January 24, 2014

unity gtk greeter

 
LightDM GTK+ Greeter brings a quick, reliable, and GTK+ 2/3 support login screen. It is used by a number of Ubuntu’s flavours, including Xubuntu.

The latest version 1.7.1 has been released a few hours ago with below changes:

  • Username tooltip tweaks
  • Language applet now displays country code labels
  • Login windows can no longer be positioned ‘off screen’
  • Improvements to handling of xscreensaver timeout
  • Login button set as “default” widget

LightDM gtk greeter

Install:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lightdm-gtk-greeter-team/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter

This will install the latest package for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10 and their derivatives.

If you don’t like Launchpad PPAs, download & install the .deb from this page.

Usage:

After installation, your login screen should changed at next boot. If not, edit the config file via:

sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Make sure its content looks like:

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter

Edit the /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf file via below command to change the theme, icon, etc.

sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

In below config file I used the Numix gtk theme:

#
# background = Background file to use, either an image path or a color (e.g. #772953)
# theme-name = GTK+ theme to use
# icon-theme-name = Icon theme to use
# font-name = Font to use
# xft-antialias = Whether to antialias Xft fonts (true or false)
# xft-dpi = Resolution for Xft in dots per inch (e.g. 96)
# xft-hintstyle = What degree of hinting to use (none, slight, medium, or full)
# xft-rgba = Type of subpixel antialiasing (none, rgb, bgr, vrgb or vbgr)
# show-language-selector (true or false)
# show-indicators = semi-colon “;” separated list of allowed indicator modules (e.g. libsoundmenu.so)
# show-clock (true or false)
# clock-format = strftime-format string, e.g. %H:%M
# keyboard = command to launch on-screen keyboard
#
[greeter]
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/mate/nature/Blinds.jpg
theme-name=Numix
icon-theme-name=LoginIcons
default-user-image = /usr/share/pixmaps/griffon_icon.png
font-name=Ubuntu 11
xft-antialias=true
xft-dpi=96
xft-hintstyle=slight
xft-rgba=rgb
show-language-selector=true

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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 [email protected] Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1