The SDDM Login Manager Has So Many Amazing Themes

Over the years, I've tried out a few different login managers for Linux. But recently, I have switched over to using SDDM mainly due to its choice of so many gorgeous themes. And it's easy to customize the themes to your liking!
REFERENCED:
► wiki.archlinux...
WANT TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL?
💰 Patreon: / distrotube
💳 Paypal: www.youtube.co...
🛍️ Amazon: amzn.to/2RotFFi
👕 Teespring: teespring.com/...
DONATE CRYPTO:
💰 Bitcoin: 1Mp6ebz5bNcjNFW7XWHVht36SkiLoxPKoX
🐶 Dogecoin: D5fpRD1JRoBFPDXSBocRTp8W9uKzfwLFAu
📕 LBC: bMfA2c3zmcLxPCpyPcrykLvMhZ7A5mQuhJ
DT ON THE WEB:
🕸️ Website: distrotube.com/
📁 GitLab: gitlab.com/dwt1
🗨️ Mastodon: fosstodon.org/...
👫 Reddit: / distrotube
📽️ LBRY/Odysee: odysee.com/@Di...
FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT I USE:
🌐 Brave Browser - brave.com/dis872
📽️ Open Broadcaster Software: obsproject.com/
🎬 Kdenlive: kdenlive.org
🎨 GIMP: www.gimp.org/
🎵 Tenacity: github.com/ten...
💻 VirtualBox: www.virtualbox...
🗒️ Doom Emacs: github.com/hli...
Your support is very much appreciated. Thanks, guys!

[@Henk717]

Its worth noting that in KDE you can just get SDDM themes in the control panel. So KDE users have a much more friendly method than the one shown here.

[@iodreamify]

Or through the Kde store. Although then you have to know a bit more where to place the files individually.

[@Henk717]

@@iodreamify The control panel has a Get themes button that basically gets you the same as the store. But from there you can also switch between them which is why its my favorite method.

[@iodreamify]

@@Henk717 yep i know. I meant to add the source directly as an alternative because not everyone uses sddm with kde or even a distro with the aur and the kde store is a nice clean place where many themes are located. And the Get themes button has been known to fail sometimes.

[@clankfish]

For anyone wondering (it took me a sec to find) it's in System Settings > under "Workspace" there is "Startup and Shutdown" > Login Screen (SDDM) > "Get New SDDM Themes"

[@GoustiFruit]

Yeap, you can install SDDM themes, AND then chose the background image you want from a dialog box.

[@Dezzelmade]

Hi! I am a beginner Linux user (before that, my main operating system was Windows all my life). I am still learning a lot of things in Linux, but thanks to your content, I have a much better understanding. Thank you for bringing complex things in simple words to ordinary people :)

[@ArniesTech]

Welcome to the camp, sir 💪😌

[@noah5592]

This is the exact same for me. If it wasn't for DT I don't think I would even think of using Linux!

[@roadkill367]

Once you go Linux you will never go back to Windows. Haven't touched my Win machine in years.

[@ArniesTech]

@@roadkill367 I wish this was true. But we have to acknowledge that many people actually go back to Windows. Gonna make a vid on that. 🙏

[@stefmyt5062]

I've been using that exact SDDM theme for about a year now, crazy to see this in one of DT's videos!

[@marciomaiajr]

"Display" in the Xorg lingo is the same as "workstation". When a program opens a "Display" it opens a connection to a workstation with a screen, mouse and keyboard. It's weird but thats origin of the term. A display manager could be as well called workstation manager. The hierarchy is: A display/workstation has a keyboard, a mouse and one or more screens. In the screens there are windows (including the root window). Inside the windows could be anything (It's the programs job to paint stuff inside the window).

[@WildVoltorb]

Interesting info! Thanks

[@polskizodiak9186]

Hmm, I thought it was because you can change your display server there

[@Cenot4ph]

Yes it's old school client server. Hence it's called the xserver

[@nichtgestalt]

What an awesome Video. Content like this is why I subscribed to your channel and I'm glad you put the work in for this one. Thank you very much, Sir and get well soon.

[@DistroTube]

Much appreciated! And I'm feeling fine now, thanks! I recorded this video a few days ago, so my voice still wasn't 100% when I did this one.

[@Romek_S]

It's worth noting that there is "preview" or "test-mode": sddm-greeter --test-mode --theme [path-to-your-theme] so you dont need constantly logoff to see what changed or how a new theme looks :)

[@pskry]

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Loginmanager, is in fact, Display-/Loginmanager, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Display plus Loginmanager.

[@vaisakhkm783]

🤣

[@AlexDBall]

Where is my startx gang at?

[@karimvarano9664]

Hyprland gang hehe

[@oldpain7625]

Hey man thanks for turning me onto Arco. Love being able to switch between window/tiling managers so seamlessly. Between Arco and Archcraft, I can see a bright future for such highly customized distributions, and Arch is the perfect base to start from.

[@xwinglover]

Arco Linux is a great place to start with Arch. If you haven't already, go and check out Erik Dubois' channel, he is the Arco project lead. He is a true gent and ambassador of Linux, and his videos are plentiful and very helpful. I used Arco more a long while before moving to vanilla Arch about 6 months ago. I got my son into Linux too, and he loves Arco.

[@PrateekTade]

In my experience, SDDM theming works wonderfully with KDE Plasma but not as much with LXQt. On the other hand, LightDM can directly use a GTK theme so you don't need to look for a separate theme. You can also change the wallpaper as you did with SDDM. There's also the option of choosing the slick-greeter instead of the regular lightdm-gtk-greeter.

[@Jetstream__]

Yooo that shutdown/startup sound hits harrrrrrd!

[@dragos-andreirotaru2316]

No matter what you post. Everytime i love them.

[@greatestcait]

SDDM is nice, but there's something alluring about text based display managers like ly as well.

[@zahin3905]

I needed this type of login manager video. Ty DT 👌

[@---Ferran---]

The beautiful things promote the productivity

[@Ethorbit]

I've been using lightdm. I have yet to try applying any themes to a login manager, but the SDDM ones sure do look nice.

[@garyreardon11]

Thats a really nice login in manager

[@Nikolai508]

Love the logout and login tunes, reminds me of old Windows.

[@wayland7150]

On Windows 98 the error chime we changed to Homer Simpson Doh!

[@IanHaver]

I use Sugar Candy. Its very pleasant on the eyes and works well :)

[@redrebel__]

This is one cool thing about endeavor os it gives u an option to switch to sddm light dm or something else.

[@PoeLemic]

I really love your channel. You sure show us what I'm interested in learning how to do. Thanks, DT.

[@maycherryblossoms]

omg DT how did you do those startup and login sounds those are sooo gorgeous c:

[@MarkDavidMcCoskey]

I use Erik's Tweak-Tool as well, but for simplicity sake, I have Grub set for both Auto-Login and 0 second boot, so my systems flash right past SDDM.

[@wikingagresor]

If you are not concerned about security, then it is ok...

[@themroc8231]

Hey DT! Did you ever try the Ly TUI display manager? It seems like it would be right up your alley.

[@greatestcait]

Ly is pretty sly, I like it.

[@mb_mobile49]

Yep, he did review Ly kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKjYlYWYnLGHhLM

[@taylor85345]

It's worth mentioning that SDDM seems to have the best experience for launching Wayland sessions.

[@combsmsteven]

Looks great, never used sddm always revert to lightdm

[@mahdi7d1rostami]

Linux is crazy. I used Windows XP for years never felt there was anything wrong but never felt satisfied with anything after migrating to Linux.

[@dullahangaming5107]

This is so much more complicated than just using something like KDE Settings > Startup. It lets you see all the AUR sddm themes visually, install and modify them. No digging thru aur, no searching for settings files, no manual edits.

[@ArniesTech]

It is indeed. My first experiences with were a bit off with LXQT but on mamy KDE centric distros, SDDM is gorgeous 💪🙏

[@donpeer4477]

DT, at 1:37 you mentioned that LXDE has been abandoned "for a while". I was unaware of this and find it puzzling that (according to DistroWatch) there are 33 distributions that use it. These include Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, and Arch Linux! Is SOMEBODY maintaining it?

[@lrdrl6408]

looks like nobody is mantaining it anymore, since the last update was in 2020

[@lucas7061]

The project is EOL as far as I know. In fact, Lubuntu left LXDE because of that and moved to LXQt.

[@PrateekTade]

The main developer of LXDE has moved on to LXQt. However components of LXDE are still being developed by other developers of the project. Separately, some Arch Linux maintainers have also ported LXDE and most of its components to GTK3.

[@send2gl]

Agree, aesthetics are pleasant. I like wobbly windows and the other options given by compiz.

[@cybersechs1368]

Great video DT!! i recently switched from GDM/Budgie.. now i'm using OpenBox/LightDM(as of 2 days ago lol).. but I'm going to switch to SDDM now

[@JanWillemMoltzer]

Nice video thanx DT 🤗

[@ItsDevOps]

This is awesome - the company has decided to rollout Linux for sales agent as the apps they using are web based. We are busy building an image with the customization of these items like login screen and wallpapers to the company branding. This video helps me understand login screens for customization. Question how do I deploy this multiple machine already in use?

[@oraz.]

There's a commit that's been waiting to be merged for a long time of sddm that allows simultaneous fingerprint or password login, which is the sole reason I want to install it.

[@simonjoelwarkentin7087]

Hey, DT My login manager is Ly. It's very minimal, nothing fancy, works well for me because i have a potato computer and all my software has to be minimal. Have you ever used ly?

[@JeffWF73]

I am using SDDM as well and I love it right now, But when I first started customizing, It was tough to find a decent theme, Every theme I liked out there is so far outdated or if not outdated lacking features, So I had to build mine from the ground up to my desired theme.

[@davidgomez79]

lightdm with mini-greeter is enough for me

[@RadioTeal]

Love SDDM :-) Great Video.

[@yarosav5396]

What is the sidebar on the right (8:56), where I can find out the video to setup smth like that?

[@wtfisgoingon535]

Don't know if its on the AUR but on KDE i always use 'plasmax'' theme

[@atulkatti1988]

Hey DT, i'm not sure if it a problem with SDDM, but when you changed the SDDM theme to sugar-dark (about 8:46), your login password was accidentally exposed. I'm not sure if someone could hack your system, i think it is safe to change the login password.

[@malfunchan]

Don't worry about it, it's a VM and the super complicated password is an open secret in this community as well as a meme

[@Sqwert-g6h]

Aren't some of the dependencies for SDDM qt based?

[@DistroTube]

Who doesn't have some qt programs installed? I don't really see things like qt or gtk as dependencies since everyone has them installed anyway.

[@Sqwert-g6h]

@@DistroTube To my surprise I actually didn't have any installed until I installed sddm.

[@manw3bttcks]

I think you can fire off sddm right away (no need to reboot): sudo systemctl --now enable sddm (log out of current desktop) you should see sddm login manager

[@oljaktl18]

I installed SDDM + KDE on Arch Linux when I first switched to linux. Only switched DE back and forth to xfce and tiling WMs since then.

[@Evgen13Great]

I like SDDM. It's nice and really customizable)

[@sebastianozorro2138]

3:02 How do I get a beautiful skyline like in your terminal?

[@ISAK.M]

I didnt even know the Arch Linux Tweak tool existed ty man. I dont understand why the SDDM page on the Arch Wiki doesnt include all the file locations and just says "edit "Current="

[@esra_erimez]

Please enjoy this community engagement comment. Have a nice day using SDDM

[@nmdra]

200k soon...

[@zeocamo]

LightDM is great too, why did you not talk about that ? DT

[@bantymech8242]

Sometimes I don't like SDDM, I always prefer lightdm or no login manager.

[@1290Zack]

The best login manager is obviously ly.

[@conceptrat]

How about LightDM as another choice in the typical ones that you'll get when installing mainstream distros? It's fairly light and simple. My bad just finished the video. Didn't realize LightDM was not well maintained. SDDM looks pretty good. Must give it a try . Thanks Derek 😸

[@shadedskys]

Cool stuff. Im just now getting back into Linux and IT after many years in a different field… I have to ask what terminal is that your using? That changes it’s fonts and icons each time you open a new tab and is it compatible with Debian based distros like kali? Im assuming so. Im using Kali for IT work, but I would like a distro that’s has super cool customization capabilities

[@NichtSylph]

Hello! How can I add a face to that SDDM theme? I followed all the procedures on Arch in how to add an avatar ico, but I have no idea how to actually display it on the logging, any help is appreciated.

[@muddyexport5639]

Good vid! Thanks!!

[@markseppelfrick9061]

Hey DT I know this isnt part of this video, but have you used the package manager Home brew???????

[@killertigergaming6762]

I was actually looking to make my sddm install not look so bleh so convenient timing

[@philippecardin1109]

I just made a new install with Linux Mint 20.3 and i put KDE on top, with SDDM as login, my 12 year old laptop works perfectly.

[@kavya1638]

got this black box appearing over the login area. if i click away from the login, like the session button, to choose x11, the box disappears, but once i click onto the password box, the bottom half of the screen turns black. how can i get rid of this?

[@samiulazim55]

why isn't showing the tiny little cute xmonad icon on the top bar? It was cute 🙂

[@DistroTube]

I removed the haskell logo because of when I have moved my xmonad configs to HOME/.config it caused an issue with having that icon there (xmobar expects that icon to be in HOME/.xmonad).

[@samiulazim55]

@@DistroTube Is there no way to bring it back? I really liked it.

[@fhilliso8538]

I tried sddm on a fresh arch install on an old thinkpad, but it would start and stop in the background and not display anything. I can force is back on by restarting it with systemd, but it fails on boot. I’ve looked online and tried early loading the kms for my video driver, but nothings worked Looks like I’m sticking to lightdm

[@Hyperboid]

2:38 that autocompletion tho 🟩

[@Karla_Finch-Cluff]

I'll have to try this, thank you! Last time I used the KDE utility for installing SDDM themes it won't let me logout, instead hanging my desktop and everything becomes unresponsive. Then again, I'm on Fedora and wonder what is going on. I have much to learn but did get frustrated when finding a cool theme just to be unable to see it

[@wikingagresor]

Had a similar problem in debian, turns out that some files for background were missing or had wrong permissions. Looking around in your theme's config file and your system journal you can discover the problem quickly.

[@Nostalgicholy]

I had the same issue. Apparently it looks for gdm files for login logout. If you install Kubuntu then they're missing. So nowadays I install GDM first. I.e. Ubuntu then install KDE. Works like a charm .

[@Karla_Finch-Cluff]

@@wikingagresor 👍 Thanks for the info! How do I read the system journal? Sorry for the noob question, but I have not discovered how to do that yet 😸

[@Karla_Finch-Cluff]

@@Nostalgicholy Thank you thank you for this information! 😺 Seems like Fedora would have come with the GDM if It planned to complain of something missing lol but it's great fo you to share a workaround!

[@wikingagresor]

@@Karla_Finch-Cluff do you know how to use terminal in linux ?

[@WC1376C22]

Older video, so I hope you see this DT. I cannot seem to DL SDDM w/o all the xtra KDE junk that comes with. i.e. I dont need KDE Connect to login. Is there a way around this? a different version or location to find the non-bloat SDDM?

[@IzludeTingel]

new issue, sddm, when i click the user name or password fields, the bottom half of the screen turns black and hides everything. not sure if this is a feature or a bug, would like it gone. freebsd.

[@BernardoHenriquez]

I love slim.... ill try sddm

[@bryceblazegamingyt9741]

What is generating that super cute pixel art in the beginning of your terminal :3

[@GreyDeathVaccine]

I do not know if it was the fault of SDDM or how my distribution (netrunner with plasma) had SDDM configured, but after I installed the i3 window manager (which I spend 99% of my time on, plasma was only for testing purposes), I couldn't select i3 on the login screen. I had to change something in the SDDM settings to have a choice, but I don't remember what, it's been over 2.5 years.

[@YannMetalhead]

Good video.

[@WildVoltorb]

I just use tty 😏

[@linuxramblingproductions8554]

There is no kde default for me on sddm the file doesn’t exist for me and i had to just edit the original file

[@gamerboy4566]

Did this new sddm theme that you set just show your login password a character at a time like in mobiles??

[@timalbersmann4192]

sddm is cool and all, but how did you get the password confirmation thingy at 10:07 ? that doesnt seem to work for me

[@marsdrums6298]

Curious as to how you were able to get sddm to go full screen like that in a VM. Mine is not full resolution when I try it. Trying to set sddm to full res now. Shouldn't be too hard to do/figure out. Great video BTW. I love sddm and lightdm also.

[@anon_y_mousse]

Do you actually need to reboot with systemD? I'm still using init, so I just logout (to prevent data loss) and go to a virtual console and init 3 then init 4 to reinitialize all the GUI stuff. I tend to do that once a month anyway because it clears the crust out of KDE's eyes. And yeah, I make sure to log out of the virtual console too: clear; init 4; exit # and it's safe.

[@etaashmathamsetty7399]

sddm still doesn't have brightness control (for laptops) and nobody has really been working on it for the past 3 years... so idk

[@danielzhou9050]

Hey DT, how often do you update your Arco/Arch Linux?

[@gabrvalete]

what did you do to your terminal to make it generate random stuff with colors every time you open it?

[@thiagolopes4978]

I’m using dwm and lightdm with autologin. Can tty be configured to login automatically without lightdm?

[@ronanru]

I don't think so

[@technomatic6285]

Yes, you need to install the xorg-xinit package and have to put dwm in your .xinitrc file. Then from a tty, you can type "startx" to start it. I think you can also add startx to .bash_profile to automatically start it whenever you log in but I don't remember the exact syntax. Although this is a security risk but you can also log in automatically (autologin) but I don't remember how to do that. I think it's done using the .bash_profile file but I could be wrong.

[@thiagolopes4978]

@@technomatic6285 thanks but I was thinking before logging in through the tty, not filling username and password, as lightdm does. startx is great and I share a config file with xinitrc and xprofile so it works for both cases. My question was about a config file for the tty itself, to detect tty1 and autologin my user. My .profile already have this detection and run startx, but again i need to fill my credentials.

[@technomatic6285]

@@thiagolopes4978 Yes, you can do that Check Arch wiki's section on "Automatic login to virtual console" in the page about "getty"

[@VU3HZW]

I understand SSDM don't have any clue about my desktop wallpaper, however wouldn't it be nice to get the same background everywhere? I always have to tweak SSDM settings to match my wallpaper 😞

[@D1Ck3n]

mhhh i tried this on my manjaro gnome but sddm will break my lockscreen :/ does sddm has a lockscreen feature?

[@g4mingaz]

Nah, I still use LXDE! After Plasma, it's my favorite desktop.

[@transberg]

DT switch to early upload becaus he knows he has mostly of us Indian viewers

[@transberg]

THX DT for support

[@DistroTube]

India is my second biggest audience by country. Thanks, India! :D

[@heliokieras73pequenasmaos]

Hi. I am trying Gentoo. It is all ok. But I was installed SDDM and was all ok, but I was not capable to put brazilian portuguese keyboard profile on it. So now I am using LightDM instead of SDDM. There are a way to put things working regarding my language and keyboard?

[@arkvsi8142]

I will install aur on my GDM through Debian rpm repository

[@petrlosev6611]

If you ever end up with editing a file in vim without root privileges, just execute this vim command ": w ! sudo tee %".

[@kenshin7440]

Hey DT next time show us how to install and customize conky step by step

[@denizkendirci]

I really like ly dm, it's minimal yet it looks gorgeous out of box but it has a big problem with starting display server with nvidia gpu on my optimus laptop. So i am forced to use xinitrc instead of a dm to be able to use optimus-manager. I'm normally using a minimal arch installation with ly dm and ratpoison wm (with just 10 lines of ratpoisonrc config) but i couldn't manage to use dedicated gpu work with that setup. Recently, i tried peux os ratpoison edition (which is the only distro edition that comes with preconfigured ratpoison) and it uses sddm as default, and optimus-manager worked just fine with it so i assumed ly dm was the problem.

[@timrosulnik1588]

The problem I'm having with ly is that if I start my PC and forget to log in, it doesn't turn off the monitors. And I can't remotely login, because display server is not yet running.

[@denizkendirci]

@@timrosulnik1588 it's minimal and elegant but i guess it has the drawbacks of being a TUI instead of being a GUI.

[@JasonOickle]

TBH, sddm doesn't look well maintained either, no updates since 2020, unless I'm missing something?

[@jackburton8352]

Linux would be a daily driver for so many more if they did not see their PC's as gaming machines. I hate W11 and will never have it because i can't because of their ridiculous hardware requirements my PC is more than capable but i don't have the lock out crap they want. Started gaming on PlayStation starting to really enjoy that so when support for W10 ends i will become full time Linux. Thankfully i am not a complete noob so the transition wont be too painful.

[@frecio231]

I recommend you try as much software that is available on Linux as possible, like libreoffice (or similar) as your office suit, gimp for image editing (if you do that), and such. Do when the day comes you're like a fish on water, comfortable.

[@vaisakhkm783]

please give some more recommendation of good login themes :)

[@MrGrobar87]

please make a video about font rendering on arch linux🙏

[@KatzRool]

startx does me just fine

[@wizetek]

$ exec startx

[@shirin-]

As beautiful as it is, I still don't find any comprehesive documentation and/or tutorial for start **creating** a theme. Anytime i search tutorial about that, there's only thing about changing theme Yes there's one docs about theming in sddm's wiki section in github, but that's still bare minimum, i don't ever know where to start just reading that wiki.

[@wonygiri]

Thanks to the new plasma 6 update many sddm login screens I’ve found are now unusable

[@WokCorner]

I still prefer LightDM and its themes..

[@VINNUSAURUS]

Does it work on gnome? If not what great gnome themes are there for GDM?

[@tekniqal2639]

I am on debian/ubuntu so the video would be more helpful if it went over, at least in passing, how thing are done there.