Replace KDM with LightDM

[Arjen Balfoort]

KDM has been discontinued, and that's the reason why we replaced KDM with LightDM in SolydK in the upcoming ISOs.

If you want to follow the ISOs, and replace KDM with LightDM on a running system, you only need to run a few commands, but before you proceed, you need to create an image of your current system (E.g.: Clonezilla).

After that, open a terminal, and run these commands:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter --no-install-recommends
sudo apt-get install lightdm lightdm-manager solydk-system-adjustments

You will be asked whether you want to use KDM, or LightDM. Select "lightdm" (use the arrow keys), and hit Enter:

configure-lightdm.png (21.39 KiB) Viewed 5184 times

If you want to switch back to KDM:

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure kdm

Removing KDM is optional, and you can do that when you verified that LightDM is functioning as it should after you reboot:

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sudo apt-get purge kdm

You can customize LightDM with the LightDM Manager.

[palimmo]

It works. Thanks Schoelje.
Could you please suggest how to have my user already selected?
In this way I have just to type my password. I save time and effort

With KDM I found a theme that gave me this feature.

[Arjen Balfoort]

As far as I know, LightDM does not allow a pre-selected user. The last logged in user is selected at the next boot.

[MAYBL8]

This Article says that SDDM is going to replace KDM:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Des ... ay_Manager

When did KDM get discontinued?

[palimmo]

As far as I know, LightDM does not allow a pre-selected user. The last logged in user is selected at the next boot.

You're right

Is it normal that I do not have many options (such as console login, ...)?
thanks!

[Arjen Balfoort]

Indeed, LightDM is a very lightweight display manager.

[palimmo]

Indeed, LightDM is a very lightweight display manager.

[zerozero]

This Article says that SDDM is going to replace KDM:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Des ... ay_Manager

When did KDM get discontinued?

january 2014;

[dyfet]

Why lightdm-gtk-greeter rather than lightdm-kde-greeter?

[Arjen Balfoort]

Why lightdm-gtk-greeter rather than lightdm-kde-greeter?

Yes, there were two objective reasons, and one subjective reason to do so: it is one less package to worry about (maintenance-wise), it makes the SolydXK family a bit more recognizable (all using the same greeter), and I thought the kde greeter was...well, ugly

[Snap]

lightdm is ugly on it's own.

[dyfet]

lightdm is ugly on it's own.

Indeed ....I think it needs some theming love, whichever one is used...

I liked the kde greeter only because it at least fits in well if you also use the joy splash screen for KDE...

[mhwelsh]

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sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter --no-install-recommends
    sudo apt-get install lightdm lightdm-manager solydk-lightdm-adjustments

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solydk-lightdm-adjustments

does not exist in Synaptic or any where else I suspect.

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fitpc3 martin # apt-get install lightdm lightdm-manager solydk-lightdm-adjustments
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package solydk-lightdm-adjustments is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
  solydxbe-lightdm-adjustments solydkbo-lightdm-adjustments solydkbe-lightdm-adjustments

Replacing it with;

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fitpc3 martin # apt-get install lightdm lightdm-manager solydkbe-lightdm-adjustments

seems to fix it.

Will it be ok?

martin welsh

[Arjen Balfoort]

Yes, that looks good.

[bas_otten]

After many boot hangups and stability issues with KDM I decided to follow this tutorial and move over to LightDM. Clearly the login screen does not look as pretty as with KDM, but the boot process is Stable and Fast, both with capitals

However, I have one issue, happening on shutdown of the laptop. It looks like there is a problem with loading the Plymouth screen and console-type messages flood the screen:

It says 'startpar: service(s) returned failure: plymouth'. I saw there was a topic about this error last year: http://forums.solydxk.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1933. But this was during startup, the log-messages are not the same and the solution does not work in this case.

This the corresponding /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log:

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[+223.65s] DEBUG: Session pid=3543: Exited with return value 0
[+223.65s] DEBUG: Seat: Session stopped
[+223.65s] DEBUG: Seat: Stopping display server, no sessions require it
[+223.65s] DEBUG: Sending signal 15 to process 3012
[+224.51s] DEBUG: Process 3012 exited with return value 0
[+224.51s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: X server stopped
[+224.51s] DEBUG: Releasing VT 7
[+224.51s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Removing X server authority /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+224.51s] DEBUG: Seat: Display server stopped
[+224.51s] DEBUG: Seat: Active display server stopped, starting greeter
[+224.51s] DEBUG: Seat: Creating greeter session
[+224.52s] DEBUG: Seat: Creating display server of type x
[+224.52s] DEBUG: Using VT 7
[+224.52s] DEBUG: Seat: Starting local X display on VT 7
[+224.52s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
[+224.52s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Writing X server authority to /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+224.52s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Launching X Server
[+224.52s] DEBUG: Launching process 4879: /usr/bin/X :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
[+224.52s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Waiting for ready signal from X server :0
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Got signal 15 from process 4947
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Caught Terminated signal, shutting down
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Seat: Stopping
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Seat: Stopping display server
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Sending signal 15 to process 4879
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Seat: Stopping session
[+224.56s] DEBUG: Seat: Session stopped
[+226.01s] DEBUG: Got signal 10 from process 4879
[+226.01s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Got signal from X server :0
[+226.01s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Connecting to XServer :0
[+226.72s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Error connecting to XServer :0
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Process 4879 exited with return value 0
[+227.33s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: X server stopped
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Releasing VT 7
[+227.33s] DEBUG: DisplayServer x-0: Removing X server authority /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Seat: Display server stopped
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Seat: Stopped
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Stopping daemon
[+227.33s] DEBUG: Exiting with return value 0

Shutting down completes successfully despite this error; apt-get dist-upgrade shows my system is completely up-to-date with no open ends.

Anyone else having this as well / know how to solve it?

Regards, Bas.

(If you prefer this update on the Bug control section, that is OK.)

UPDATE:
I do not always get the 'Plymouth Failed' error. But I do always get a visible console during shutdown. Or is this 'works as designed'?

[bas_otten]

In response to my previous post: somehow, after applying UP 2014.10.15, the issue is SOLVED! No more Plymouth error messages during shutdown and a nice splash-screen with LightDM.
Regards, Bas.