Recommended Display (login) Manager for Openbox?

[jagdpanther]

I currently am using SLiM as the display manager (aka login manager) for the Openbox Window manager. I notice that the gentoo SLiM wiki https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SLiM states that I should consider using a different display manager as SLiM appears to be abandoned.
I am thinking of switching from SLiM to SDDM https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SDDM and want to know if there is a better choice?

I currently am using OpenRC and consolekit. (I am also about to switch from consolekit to elogind as recommended in the recent eselect news titled: Desktop profile switching USE default to elogind.)

[Ant P.]

I used to use SLiM too, but after seeing the state it was in I removed it and now just start an xsession directly.

[jagdpanther]

Ant P.:

Thanks for the comment. On my work system (Gentoo Linux, of course) I don't use a login manager, I just login on the console and type "exec startx". (The exec ensures that if I am not in front of the box and xscreensaver dies that my console session is gone.) However, on my home system I am not the only user, so the display manager is handy. (Also, I never figured out how to have a console session screen go into power save mode , which is easy to do when running X.)

[Jaglover]

My wife logs in from console and X is started automatically from ~/.bashrc_profile. So it is just text mode login instead of GUI login.

[Hund]

Do you need a display manager? xinit works great if you're okay without one.

[Ant P.]

However, on my home system I am not the only user, so the display manager is handy.

How I have it set up here, since I don't really need security, is starting X and running a user .xsession directly from init. For a multi-user system you can't really do that though.

SDDM seems fine for your use case. There's LightDM too, but from what I can see it's not as light as SDDM.

[Juippisi]

I switched from slim to lightdm - been happy with it. Works with systemd and elogind.

sddm needs Qt and my system is full GTK so it was either lightdm, gdm or startx.

[ipic]

I'd second lightdm, also switched from slim a while back.
It works with OpenRC and elogin - if you are allergic to systemd, like me.

[jagdpanther]

Thanks for all of the replies.

Right now I have removed Slim, switched from consolekit to elogind, and using startx, openbox starts with the following at the end of my ~/.xinitrc file:

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exec ssh-agent openbox-session 

I thought I might need something like the following instead of the above line but I didn't:

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exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session openbox-session

So now sddm or lightdm ....

I admit I like Jaglover's suggestion to put startx in ~/.bashrc_profile
but I'll go with the eye-candy route for my wife's login.

[A.S. Pushkin]

I'm using SLIM and have been very happy with it. I like the simple security in the interface.

What are the things about LightDM there are better than SLIM. I'd every much be interested.

Thanks.

[Vulgar]

Warning
With the last release in 2013, the SliM project appears to be abandoned. Please consider a different display manager.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SLiM

I have never used a login manager. I like keeping things separated, so I always have access to a console, with no gui failing and disallowing login. Either way you have to login unless you set things up without login. Login manager has never made any sense to me, just a middle man that will fail.

If you just have to have pretty pictures while away, why if your not there, and want security, use a screen locker which can be configured to what ever you want.

Perhaps I am not aware that a big login manager impress's the girls!

[A.S. Pushkin]

Thanks for the heads up on slim. I've been rather satisfied with it so I'll be sorry to see it go.

I have almost always just used a terminal to login for the reason you mention. I decided
to go this route due my girl. She's not a computer person. A she's a Windose user so
using a terminal is like to someone from another planet.

Thanks again and I'll investigate something else.

[Vulgar]

I never installed a login manager on my girlfriends laptop.

Sat there and taught her how to login, then type in "startx" push enter. She has been doing fine with it for 10+ years now. She was intimidated at first, as she is not a computer person at all. But she has got the hang of it, startx is all she can do. She has been doing fine with xfce running. Still have to show her how to do little things though. Some times it makes me wonder!

Her father had dementia the last couple years of his life. I used slim that logged in automatically after boot to xfce. He simply could not remember how to login even with slim. But he sure would get into xfce and change everything. He always denied making any changes. It was funny, once a week I had to stop by and fix things. He used to be an engineer and had a lifetime of experience with computers. That dementia really did a number on him.

[AlexJGreen]

_

[jagdpanther]

I gave up on the display manager. startx is easy.
For my wife I put startx at the end of her ~/.bashrc_profile
(thanks again for that suggestion, Jaglover)

[RobPearce]

Thanks for the heads up on slim. I've been rather satisfied with it so I'll be sorry to see it go.

SLiM still works, with elogind, if you fork the ebuild into your /usr/local/portage. I had done so a few years back because of a patch I'd put in to fix a bug with handling of expired accounts.

[389292]

My grandpa uses a cheap throwaway Android tablet, with couple of shortcuts like 'News', 'Weather', 'Radio', 'YouTube', he did not breake anything for like 2 or 3 years, little to no maintenance for me.
If a person refuses to type his/her credentials and initiate startx manually due to 'complexity' or laziness, then a todler's Android tablet is the absolute maximum you can entrust to him/her, basic computer literacy shouldn't be negotiable.

[Tony0945]

I've always used plain old xdm. I could use startx, but why? I do have a console, six of them, I just have to press CTL-ALT-F1 or (F2..F6) and CTL-SLT-F7 to return. easier than typing "exec startx maye-seesion-manager" (see I had a typo already), two typos.
Slim was nice for having a menu and running different environments. I do this with xdm by adding a menu from an article in Linux Journal. Sadly, that's not available any more. I could post a How-To in tips and tricks if there is any demand.

A login manager is handy if more than one person uses the computer or could potentially use it. I used to have logins for my grandkids (still do on one computer). They couldn't mess with my files or desktop. It also opened their eyes that computers are more than Microsoft Windows. They loved running Linux on the low power mass market machines that were all that was available at the time.

No kids? Have a spouse or girl/boy-friend? Don't get into the blame game. Let each have their own desktop.

[figueroa]

I still don't use a display manager on most of my machines, but where one is handy, for myself or others, I've been using lightdm and happier with it than any others I've tried. I have a script in my path "x" that contains:

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play /scratch/wav/startup.wav &> /dev/null &
startx

The startup sound is just for fun.

.xinitrc =

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setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
xhost +local:root > /dev/null
/usr/bin/numlockx on
dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session startlxde

[Crakem]

I'm working on xlogin if some DM user wants to give it a try. Non-root not implemented but its ultra lightweight and there is a ebuild here #814575 This is for experimented users worried with security. This package enforces you to use some security policies (YAMA in kernel for example) Like to found more desktop users other than lxde for testing

[Tony0945]

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~ $ zgrep YAMA /proc/config.gz

??? YAMA?

[mike155]

??? YAMA?

That's the kernel option that makes our sandbox print funny error messages like the one below:

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* /var/tmp/portage/sys-apps/sandbox-2.13/work/sandbox-2.13/libsandbox/trace.c:_do_ptrace():75: failure (Operation not permitted):
* ISE:_do_ptrace: ptrace(PTRACE_TRACEME, ..., 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000): Operation not permitted

[pietinger]

??? YAMA?

That's the kernel option that makes our sandbox print funny error messages like the one below:

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* /var/tmp/portage/sys-apps/sandbox-2.13/work/sandbox-2.13/libsandbox/trace.c:_do_ptrace():75: failure (Operation not permitted):
* ISE:_do_ptrace: ptrace(PTRACE_TRACEME, ..., 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000): Operation not permitted

Do you have "kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 3" (with hardened sources) or do you have "...=2" ?

[figueroa]

YAMA=

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$ grep -i yama /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_SECURITY_YAMA=y
CONFIG_LSM="lockdown,yama,loadpin,safesetid,integrity,selinux,smack,tomoyo,apparmor"

But, I'm lost at "kernel.yama.ptrace_scope =" which is from where?

[Hu]

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~ $ zgrep YAMA /proc/config.gz

??? YAMA?

YAMA is a Linux Security Module. See security/yama/Kconfig for a brief and unhelpful description, or follow the instructions there to the fuller documentation at Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/Yama.rst. (Choice of v5.14 kernel sources is arbitrary, and based on it being the most recent non-rc as of this writing.)

YAMA=

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$ grep -i yama /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_SECURITY_YAMA=y
CONFIG_LSM="lockdown,yama,loadpin,safesetid,integrity,selinux,smack,tomoyo,apparmor"

But, I'm lost at "kernel.yama.ptrace_scope =" which is from where?

That is a sysctl setting. You would most commonly access it via /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope, though I think sysctl could be used as well. The notation you quoted is popularly used because that is how you would write it in /etc/sysctl.conf if you wanted to have your system boot scripts set it to a particular value.