UbuntuHandbook

How to Remove Guest Session in Ubuntu 16.04 Login Screen

Last updated: April 14, 2016

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

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'

Now restart your computer and the Guest session disappeared.

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!

In Howtos remove guest session, Ubuntu 16.04

Ubuntu 14.10: Remove Guest Session, White Dots From Login Screen

Last updated: September 28, 2014

This is a quick tutorial that shows you how to remove the Guest session and the white dots from Unity’s login screen in Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic.

1. To remove the Guest session:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit enter:

sudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-ubuntu.conf

Type in your user password when it asks. Note that there’s no visual feed back when typing password.

As the picture shows, when the editor opens, add a new line into the end and save the file

allow-guest=false

That’s it. You won’t see the Guest next time Ubuntu boots up.

2. To Remove white dots:

There is a graphical tool dconf-editor which provides options to change the login screen background and remove the white dots (draw grid).

a.) To install dconf-editor, click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click the install button:

Click install dconf-editor

b.) To configure Unity login screen, you need the lightdm user privilege to launcher dconf-editor. To do so:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, run commands to get root privilege:

sudo -i

Type in your user password when it asks.

Allow user lightdm to create a connection to the X server:

xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm

Switch to user lightdm in this terminal window:

su lightdm -s /bin/bash

Finally start dconf-editor:

dconf-editor

c.) When the dconf-editor opens, navigate to com –> canonical –> unity-greeter in left. Then disable the value for both draw-grid and draw-user-backgrounds.

Done. You’ll see the changes in next boot.

In Howtos remove guest session, remove white dots, Ubuntu 14.10

Remove Guest Session From Ubuntu 14.04 Login Screen

Last updated: November 6, 2014

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is Out! One of the first things to do after upgraded to or installed the Trusty Tahr is disable the Guest Session. Here I’ll show you how.

In Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty, the configuration files for LightDM has been moved to /usr/share/lightdm directory. I could only guess that the previous location “/etc/lightdm” is in preparation for giving the login option of logging in to a Unity 8 preview session running on Mir/Xmir.

Anyhow, you can follow the below steps to remove Guest Session in Ubuntu 14.04:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to edit the config file:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-ubuntu.conf

Type in your user password when it asks. You may need to install gksu first from Ubuntu Software Center.

2. When the file opens, add this line in the end of file and save it.

allow-guest=false

That’s it. Guest Login will disappeared at next boot.

In Howtos remove guest session, Ubuntu 14.04

Disable Guest Account from Ubuntu 13.10 Login Screen

Last updated: October 1, 2013

This quick tip is going to show beginners how to disable the Guest session from Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy LightDM Login Screen.

Guest Session comes default in Ubuntu Unity, which anyone can log into from the login screen without password. You can easily remove it by the steps below:

1.) Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, copy and paste below code and hit Enter.

sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

2.) It opens the config file. All you need to do is add below line into the file and click save.

allow-guest=false

The changes will take effect when you restart your computer. Enjoy!

In Howtos remove guest session, Ubuntu 13.10

Remove Guest Session From Unity Login Screen

Last updated: April 22, 2024

Do you really need a guest session in your Ubuntu Unity login screen? In this tutorial I will show you how to remove it if you say no!

Following steps work on Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04 and higher.

1.) Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal window, copy and paste below command and run to edit the LightDM configuration file:

sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Replace gedit with nano if you don’t have the text editor, and, save by pressing Ctrl+S and then Ctrl+X.

2.) Add this line to the end and save it.

That’s it! To apply changes, run command below:

sudo restart lightdm

It’ll bring you back to login screen, so backup current tasks first.