sddm(1)

the simple desktop display manager

Section 1 sddm bookworm source

Summary

sddm is the Simple Desktop Display Manager, a Qt/QML-based graphical login screen (greeter) used to start desktop sessions on Linux. It's normally started automatically as a system service rather than run by hand. Configuration lives in /etc/sddm.conf.d and themes in /usr/share/sddm/themes.

Tip: You usually don't run sddm directly; manage it through your service manager (e.g. systemctl) and configure it via files in /etc/sddm.conf.d.

Description

SDDM

NAME

sddm - the simple desktop display manager

SYNOPSIS

sddm [OPTIONS...]

DESCRIPTION

sddm is a display and login manager based on Qt technologies.

Using QtQuick and QML, designers are given the ability to easily create pleasant, modern looking interfaces for sddm.

sddm runs the greeter as a system user named sddm whose home directory needs to be set to /var/lib/sddm.

If pam and systemd are available, the greeter will go through logind, which will give it access to drm devices.

Distributions without pam and systemd will need to put the sddm user into the video group, otherwise errors regarding GL and drm devices might be experienced.

OPTIONS

--test-mode

Start daemon in test mode.

--example-config

Print the complete current configuration to stdout

--help, -h

Show help message and exit.

FILES

/usr/lib/sddm/sddm.conf.d

System configuration directory

/etc/sddm.conf.d

Local configuration directory

/etc/sddm.conf

Local configuration file for compatibility

/usr/share/sddm/themes

Where sddm looks for themes

Examples

sddm --example-config

Print the complete current configuration to stdout, useful as a starting template.

sddm --test-mode

Start the daemon in test mode to preview the greeter without a full login setup.

sddm --help

Show the available command-line options and exit.