Have multiple monitors connected into your Ubuntu machine? Here’s the quick tip shows you how to configure which one to display the login screen.

It’s quite easy to set primary display in Ubuntu with default GNOME desktop. However, the login screen is always sticking to the built-in display in my laptop. In case you use the external monitor for the most time, you may also set it as primary display for the GDM login screen by following this tutorial.

NOTE: This tutorial is tested only in Ubuntu with default GNOME desktop! Though, it may also work in other Linux with GNOME (e.g., Fedora, Debian and Arch) or Linux with GDM display manager.

Step 1: Set Primary Display in Gnome Control Center

First of all, open Settings (aka Gnome Control Center) from the top-right corner system tray menu.

Then, navigate to Displays in the left, and choose the monitor in the right you want to use it as primary.

This step is required to generate a XML config file under user’s ‘.config‘ folder. Though, you may switch to another display as primary at anytime as you want.

Step 2: Apply Primary Display for GDM Login Screen

As mentioned above, the previous step generates a XML config file automatically. By copying the file into GDM’s config folder will make it also work for the login screen.

To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run command:

sudo cp ~/.config/monitors.xml /var/lib/gdm3/.config/

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter. For other Linux, you may have to replace gdm3 in command with gdm.

Now, save your work and log out to see the magic!

(Optional) Disable the built-in display on startup

Another annoying thing when using multiple monitor in Ubuntu Linux is that the Grub boot menu screen is always displaying in built-in monitor. I can’t figure out how to make it work in external screen as it seems to be responsible to BIOS.

However, you can disable the built-in display on startup and use the external screen only by adding a Kernel parameter.

NOTE: After this step, Grub boot-menu still shows in built-in display, though it goes always blank after that, even after disconnected the external monitor.

1. First, boot up and log into your Ubuntu desktop. Open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut on keyboard.

2. Disconnect the external monitor, and run command to get the device ID of built-in display:

for p in /sys/class/drm/*/status; do con=${p%/status}; \
echo -n "${con#*/card?-}: "; cat $p; done

Some said the last command does not work. If so, you may run command below instead. Usually, the first one is the ID of built-in display.

cat ~/.config/monitors.xml |grep connector

Or, just log out and choose login via ‘Ubuntu on Xorg’ via bottom right gear button. And, run xrandr -q to see the display device name.

3. Re-connect your external monitor, and run command to edit the configuration file for Grub:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Replace gedit with gnome-text-editor for Ubuntu 24.04 or use nano that works in most Linux. When file opens, add video=eDP-1:d as value of ‘GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT’. So the line will look like:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quite splash video=eDP-1:d"

Here ‘d‘ will disable the device. Though you have to change eDP-1 to your device name you got in last step.

After saving the change, run sudo update-grub to reload the Grub settings and done!

In addition, you may add video=Device-Name:e or video=Device-Name:D kernel parameter to force enable external monitor on startup if need.

This simple tutorial shows how to hide user list and/or enable touchpad tap clicking in login screen of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

GNOME, the default desktop environment, has some hidden keys to configure the login screen options. However, you need gdm (Gnome Display Manager) user privilege who handles the default login.

After following this tutorial, Ubuntu will no longer display usernames in login screen. Instead, you need to manually type user-name and then password to login.

Option 1: Single command to hide user list from login screen

Firstly press Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below as you need.

1.) Install dbus-x11 inter-process messaging system by running command:

sudo apt install dbus-x11

Without the package, you’ll get following output when running command in step 2.) to hide user list or enable tap to click.

dconf-WARNING **: 15:23:16.101: failed to commit changes to dconf: Failed to execute child process “dbus-launch” (No such file or directory)

2.) To hide your usernames from login screen, use command:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm gsettings set org.gnome.login-screen disable-user-list true

This command will first add user gdm into access control list. Then toggle the hidden ‘disable-user-list’ key via that user privilege.

For choice, you may also run the command below to enable tap-clicking in login screen.

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true

To undo the changes, simply re-run the commands in step 2.) by replacing value ‘true‘ to ‘false‘.

Option 2: Use a graphical tool to configure login screen

There’s a new configuration tool, gdm-settings, under development for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch and other Linux using GNOME Desktop.

The tool provides an elegant user interface specifically for configuring the GDM login screen, including:

• change login screen background. (Not work for Ubuntu 22.04 so far, at least in my case)
• Change fonts, scaling factor.
• Configure login screen top bar.
• Configure sound, touchpad behavior, nightlight, and more.

1.) Firstly, download gdm-settings from its project releases page:

So far, it’s AppImage package that works on most Linux!

2.) Right-click on the ‘AppImage’ package, and open its “Properties” dialog. Then enable ‘Allow executing file as program‘ under Permissions tab. Finally, right-click and select run it to launch the tool.

3.) When it opens, enable ‘tap-to-click’ under Touchpad tab, and disable user list under Miscellaneous.

After clicking ‘Apply’ and typing user password for authentication, you’ll see the changes in next login.

Ubuntu lists all the available user accounts in the GDM login screen. You can however remove them to protect your privacy.

Gnome, the default desktop environment, has a hidden option to force users to type the username and then password to login. If you’re working on public places, it will be good to enable this option for privacy concern.

1.) Firstly open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. Because the login screen is handled by gdm, you have to firstly run command to allows it to make connections to X server.

xhost SI:localuser:gdm

Though it says for X, you also need to run the command in Wayland session to avoid error to disable user list.

2.) Now run gsettings command to disable user list via user gdm:

sudo -u gdm gsettings set org.gnome.login-screen disable-user-list true

Type user password, no asterisk feedback, for sudo prompt and hit Enter.

In next boot, you will no longer see the user accounts. Instead, you need to type username and then password to login.

How to Reset:

To restore the login screen setting, also run both xhost and gsettings commands in a terminal window.

To be lazy, I’ll combine the two commands into single, so it will be:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm gsettings reset org.gnome.login-screen disable-user-list

In addition for more Login Screen settings, e.g, disable ‘Power Off’ menu option, toggle authentications, you can open Dconf Editor (install it first from Ubuntu Software) via user gdm:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm dconf-editor