Unity Greeter Gets A New Session Chooser Dialog [Ubuntu 12.04 Development]

Unity Greeter 0.2.4 (the LightDM login screen theme) has been uploaded to the Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin repositories and it comes with a cool new session chooser dialog (screenshot above) which replaces the old menu.

The login box was updated too:

You can see the latest Unity Greeter in action below:



(direct video link)

The new Unity Greeter should be available as an update for all Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin users in a few minutes/hours.

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LightDM: Unity Greeter Update Brings Support For Reading User Background [Ubuntu 12.04 Development]

A new Unity Greeter (the default LightDM greeter for Ubuntu) version has been released for testing in the Ubuntu Desktop PPA, and it brings support for reading the user background, along with other minor tweaks.

That means that the login screen background should now match your desktop background. This also works if there are multiple users - in this case, the LightDM login screen background changes depending on which user you select.

Here's a video demoing the new Unity Greeter (in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin):

The new Unity Greeter, along with a new LightDM version are only available for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin users and can be installed by adding the Ubuntu Desktop PPA. The packages should also be uploaded to the official Precise repositories soon.

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Work Started On LightDM KDE Integration

LightDM will probably replace KDM in Kubuntu 12.04 and David Edmundson has started working on Qt bindings and a KDE front end for LightDM. The greeter (theme) allows the use of Plasma widgets, can be configured independently and is still very fast, says David.

This is work in progress, but if you're using Kubuntu 11.10, you can already try the KDE LightDM greeter by using the ppa:agateau/lightdm-kde PPA in Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. In David's screenshot (in the beginning of the post), you can see two themes as well as a LightDM configuration dialog available in the KDE System Settings - for now the System Settings integration and the second theme aren't available in the PPA, but if you want to give them a try, get the latest code via GIT.

To test (this is not stable!) the LightDM KDE Greeter in Kubuntu 11.10, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:agateau/lightdm-kde
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lightdm-kde-greeter
sudo ln -s /usr/share/xgreeters/lightdm-kde-greeter.desktop /usr/share/xgreeters/default.desktop

Arch Linux users can install it via AUR.

When installing the LightDM Greeter package in Kubuntu, LightDM itself should install too, and you should see a message asking you to select if you want to use LightDM or KDM as default. Select LightDM and restart your computer.

If somehow the message doesn't show up, you can switch to LightDM using the command below:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

If later on you want to use KDM by default again, run:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure kdm

And select KDM as the default display manager.

More about switching between LightDM, KDM, GDM, etc. in Ubuntu.

via / first screenshot credits: sharpley.org.uk

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Simple LightDM Manager: Change The LightDM Background Or Logo Using A GUI

Claudio @ ubuntued.info has created a tool for tweaking the LightDM appearance called Simple LightDM Manager.

For now, the tool lets you change the LightDM background (and select between an image or solid color) or the logo and that's about it. For now there aren't too many things you can tweak about LightDM anyway but hopefully when we'll have enough LighDM themes, this tool will also be able to switch between themes.

Here is a Simple LightDM Manager video recorded by Claudio:




To installl Simple LightDM Manager in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, use the following commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:claudiocn/slm
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install simple-lightdm-manager

Or you can manually download the package from the Simple LightDM Manager PPA HERE.

Thanks to Claudio for the tip; via ubuntued.info

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How To Change LightDM (Login Screen) Background [Quick Tip]

LightDM is a lightweight display manager that has been made default in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, replacing GDM.

If you want to change the LightDM login screen background, all you have to do is edit a file and enter the path to the new background:

1. Open a terminal or press ALT + F2 and enter:

gksu gedit /etc/lightdm/unity-greeter.conf

2. Scroll down to the line that begins with "background" - it should look like this:

background=/usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu.png

And replace "/usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu.png" with the exact path to the wallpaper you want to use for the LightDM background.

3. Save the file and log out.

The above instructions assume you're using Unity Greeter, the default LightDM greeter (theme) in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. If you use a different greeter, like for instance LightDM GTK Greeter (package name: lightdm-gtk-greeter), search for it's configuration file under /etc/lightdm/ and edit that file instead of unity-greeter.conf.

via laudecioliveira.org

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How To Switch Between GDM, LightDM Or KDM In Ubuntu [Quick Tip]

(GDM 3 in Ubuntu 11.10)

Let's say you have both LightDM and GDM display managers installed on your computer (running Ubuntu or any other Debian-based Linux distribution). LightDM is default but you want to switch to GDM - to do this, run the command below in a terminal:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm

This will display something like this:

Select the display manager you want to use by default and hit enter. Then, restart your computer.

If GDM is installed, you can run the same command ("sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm") to switch to any display manager, be it LightDM, KDM, Slim, GDM and so on. If GDM is not installed, replace "gdm" in the command above with one of the installed display managers (example: "sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm").

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First Ubuntu 11.10 LightDM Greeter (Theme) Screenshot

As you probably know, LightDM has replaced GDM in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. A "LightDM Greeter" is a login screen theme.

An initial implementation of what will probably be the default LightDM login screen theme ("Unity Greeter") for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot has just been uploaded to Launchpad:

The theme is nowhere near finished (it looks more like a draft) but it looks pretty interesting: there's a panel on top which seems inspired by the initial Wingpanel and comes with an animated user list as you can see in THIS .gif I've recorded.

There are no official Ubuntu LightDM greeter mockups so it's still unsure how the final theme will/should look like. For instance, the user list on the left seems a bit weird, but maybe there's a reason for this, like displaying the user avatar in the center. We'll keep you updated!

Note: Unity Greeter has been uploaded and should be available in the Oneiric repositories soon (package name: unity-greeter), however, it has not been set as default yet.

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Deja Dup Gets Ubuntu One Support; Linux Kernel 3.0.0 Available In Ubuntu 11.10 [Oneiric Updates]

Michael Terry, the Deja Dup developer has announced that a recent update in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot brings the promised Ubuntu One integration. Here are some screenshots:

This also means that Duplicity, the command line tool that powers Deja Dup supports Ubuntu One too. For now, Deja Dup is not yet default in Ubuntu 11.10 but this is expected to happen soon.

Unfortunately I couldn't test the actual backup feature because Ubuntu One (in Ubuntu 11.10) refuses to connect on my computer.

In other Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot news:

- LightDM is now default in Ubuntu 11.10, replacing GDM (by the way, it's default in Xubuntu too). But as expected, there's no greeter (theme) yet:

- Linux Kernel 3.0.0 has also made it into Oneiric:

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