# XDM alternative



## CuddlyKittens11 (Jun 30, 2012)

I'm looking for an alternative to the X Display Manager.  Right now I have XFCE4 installed as my Window Manager; I'm wondering if I could use something like KDM or GDM without having to install the whole KDE/GNOME pacakge.  I've heard about SLiM, but haven't tried it yet.

There is also something out there called "LightDM," and it seems interesting to me, yet I haven't seen it in the FreeBSD Ports listing.  Has anyone else here tried it out yet?


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## Zare (Jun 30, 2012)

SLiM or WDM (Wings Display Manager).


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## graudeejs (Jun 30, 2012)

x11/slim


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## fmc000 (Jul 1, 2012)

graudeejs said:
			
		

> x11/slim


Agreed. There is also a nice FreeBSD theme for Slim on this forum.


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## jrm@ (Jul 1, 2012)

I'm curious if I'm missing something.  Why do you prefer x11/slim over x11/xdm?  The latter has always worked well for me, although if you like a little more flash I can see why you would prefer an alternative.  This is my boring, but functional xdm login screen.


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## graudeejs (Jul 2, 2012)

jrm said:
			
		

> I'm curious if I'm missing something.  Why do you prefer x11/slim over x11/xdm?  The latter has always worked well for me, although if you like a little more flash I can see why you would prefer an alternative.  This is my boring, but functional xdm login screen.



Can you select which WM to launch with XDM? AFAIK no.
With slim, you can press f1 and depending on you slim config, you'll be able to pass string to ~/.xinitrc and run whatever you want depending on that string (which usually is the name of the WM).

*C*heck my ~/xinitrc:
https://github.com/graudeejs/dot.files/blob/master/dot.xinitrc

As a bonus it looks much nicer. Also you don't have to edit /etc/ttys to get it running.


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## kpedersen (Jul 2, 2012)

Plus XDM on FreeBSD seems a little broken. The password textbox only appears once the username is entered and yet the password label is always visible. Looks really naff but something to do with PAM :/


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## OH (Jul 2, 2012)

graudeejs said:
			
		

> Can you select which WM to launch with XDM? AFAIK no.
> (...)
> 
> Also you don't have to edit /etc/ttys to get it running.



I'm curious, why you would consider editing /etc/ttys a bad thing?


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## graudeejs (Jul 3, 2012)

OH said:
			
		

> I'm curious, why you would consider editting /etc/ttys a bad thing?



I don't consider it bad thing. In fact I do edit it. I turn everything "secure" to "insecure".
However If I can avoid editing it, why not?


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## Snowe (Nov 4, 2012)

graudeejs said:
			
		

> Can you select which WM to launch with XDM? AFAIK no.
> With slim, you can press f1 and depending on you slim config, you'll be able to pass string to ~/.xinitrc and run whatever you want depending on that string (which usually is the name of the WM).



I wrote a little Xdialog box at the bottom of my .xinitrc to allow me to choose which WM to start after logging in:


```
Xdialog --title "Eeebox" \
       --menu "Window Manager" 8 22 2 \
       "xmonad" "" \
       "fluxbox" "" 2> ~/.xdialog.tmp

case $? in
       0)
               "`tail -1 ~/.xdialog.tmp`";;
       1)
               exec xmonad;;
       255)
               exec xmonad;;
esac
```


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