14 DAY TRIAL // LightDM GTK+ Greeter 1.8.4, an interface for the display manager that’s responsible for the login screen, manages the X servers, and facilitates remote logins using the XDMCP protocol, is now available for download.
If LightDM sounds familiar, then you should know that it's most commonly found in Ubuntu distributions and has been included by default for a long time. The Greeter is the most visible part and it takes care of the Login menu, among other things.
The developer of LightDM GTK+ Greeter has decided to release yet another version of the software, but the latest builds that have been made available don't bring anything major, they just fix some annoying backend bugs.
If you remember your history correctly, when Ubuntu switched from GDM (GNOME Display Manager) to LightDM, it was actually quite a big deal. Everyone was speculating what the new login screen would look like. Some of the ideas proposed even included profile pictures, but they never materialized.
Over time, the LightDM GTK+ Greeter gathered numerous fixes and improvements. For example, the “show-language-selector” setting has been deprecated, the “show-indicators” setting now controls all indicators, the screen timeout is now configurable when used as a lock screen, a warning is now displayed when attempting to shut down or restart when other users are logged in, the support for PAM messages has been improved, theming support has been improved, and a number of keyboard shortcuts have been added.
Also, a regression that affected the Enter key, which was longer advancing to the password field, has been fixed, mlockall is now being used to better protect the password field, a badge for the Pantheon session has been added, “Guest Session” is now used in favor of “Guest Account,” and more.
This software is mostly found in Ubuntu, but that doesn't mean that you can test it or employ it. The LightDM GTK+ Greeter developer has provided a very handy PPA that anyone can use. All you need to do is to open a terminal and enter the following commands (you will need to be root in order for this to work):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lightdm-gtk-greeter-team/stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install lightdm-gtk-greeter Also, keep in mind that you will need to restart the system to get the new version of the LightDM GTK+ Greeter in place.
Check the official announcement for more details about this release. Download LightDM GTK+ Greeter 1.8.4 right now from the author's website.