How do I enable auto-login in LightDM?

Question

I want user foo to auto-login using LightDM (which has been used by Ubuntu since version 11.10). How would I do that?

FYI, If you are using home folder encryption, you can't enable auto login. — Saeid, Mar 30 '13 at 08:37
I know its slightly off-topic: I want to mention nodm is an alternative option which can start an x session for a user on boot with no auth (thinks like the lock screen probably wont work, etc) — ThorSummoner, Jun 24 '19 at 07:03

score 95 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 19 '17 at 12:02

95

An alternative to Alin's answer is to create a file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and add the following content:

[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=<YOUR USER>
autologin-user-timeout=0
user-session=ubuntu
# Uncomment the following, if running Unity
#greeter-session=unity-greeter

Next time you start, auto-login should work like expected.

edited Sep 19 '17 at 12:02

Patrizio Bertoni

153

answered Jun 29 '11 at 09:51

htorque

64,798

11

Setting autologin-user to your user name is enough for autologin to work. – Smile4ever Oct 22 '14 at 16:47
3

On old versions there is a bug, if you set autologin-user-timeout=0 (or any other value to autologin-user-timeout), it's not working (LP#902852, debian#682473. – pevik Apr 23 '16 at 04:48
2

@Smile4ever for my setup (debian buster 4.18 + openbox) it didn't work without autologin-user-timeout=0. – Vorac Dec 15 '18 at 17:42
To specify a custom autologin-session, use e.g. autologin-session=openbox – spawn Dec 04 '20 at 09:56

score 49 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 05 '12 at 11:56

49

You can do this without editing configuration files: go to System Settings > User accounts, click "Unlock" and enter your password, then click the button next to "Automatic login":

' enter image description here

edited Apr 05 '12 at 11:56

Jorge Castro

71,754

answered Sep 06 '11 at 15:14

Alin Andrei

7,348

4

I'm working on Ubuntu 14.04. Here there is no option as "Automatic Login" as shown in your screen shot. Please say how to enable automatic login. – Ravi Sep 25 '14 at 06:48
@Ravi: the option is still there in Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10. But there's an alternative answer below for enabling this from the lightdm.conf file. – Alin Andrei Sep 26 '14 at 11:40
@Ravi do you have home folder encryption on? – jcollum Jul 26 '17 at 14:28
Looks a little different, but can be found in the same place and works in MATE 18.04 – Andreas Feb 13 '21 at 16:46
This does not work for me in Ubuntu 22. The setting is there exactly as your screenshot shows it, but it doesn't work. Creating the config file as mentioned in the other answers works for me. – Eaten by a Grue Jan 13 '23 at 15:01

nkef · Answer 3 · 2022-03-06T18:15:07.390

35

From Ubuntu 14.04 and above create the file:

/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/12-autologin.conf

and add:

[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=youruser

edited Mar 06 '22 at 18:15

answered Apr 28 '14 at 12:02

nkef

1,141

1

I had to create this file and all it had was this and worked! – Peter Oct 20 '14 at 12:39
3

This worked for me on 64-bit Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS (Bionic), as of July 2018, when editing /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/60-lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf file like I did in 16.04 LTS, did no good. – ablaze Jul 07 '18 at 19:52
still works great in Ubuntu 22.04! – hanshenrik Oct 21 '22 at 09:13

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 26 '16 at 11:11

18

You can easily do this with lightdm-set-defaults if you'd rather not edit lightdm.conf manually:

sudo /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-set-defaults --autologin "$USER"

It will not set the autologin timeout, but the default for that is 0 in the code anyway, so you don't need to set it.

edited Apr 26 '16 at 11:11

David Foerster

36,264
56
94
147

answered Dec 06 '12 at 19:49

mfisch

3,643

10

This doesn't work in 14.04 LTS as lightdm-set-defaults was removed then so the other methods are better. – Robert Ancell Aug 22 '14 at 07:33

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 25 '13 at 14:06

8

gksu gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

add lines:

autologin-user=username
autologin-user-timeout=0

example:

[SeatDefaults]

user-session=ubuntu

greeter-session=unity-greeter

autologin-user=alan

autologin-user-timeout=0

edited Mar 25 '13 at 14:06

Seth

58,122

answered Mar 25 '13 at 13:46

Alan

81

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 02 '12 at 06:09

3

Open settings, select 'user accounts'. Click the unlock button, then change the Automatic Login switch to "On"

answered Nov 02 '12 at 06:09

luyangl

31

1

Thank you Luyang Liu, but this optino is not displayed in User Accounts. – Agmenor Jan 17 '13 at 18:34

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 28 '19 at 07:50

2

In Ubuntu 18.04 (Xubuntu Minimal Desktop), create /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and add the following:

# /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=<username>
autologin-user-timeout=0

I couldn't get it working through the lightdm.conf.d folder.

answered Jan 28 '19 at 07:50

Jaakko

183

Worked on 16.04 as well. – IsaacS Mar 14 '19 at 04:24

opinion_no9 · Answer 8 · 2020-04-25T08:21:24.430

1

Ubuntu 20.04 How To: automatic login of particular user (e.g. server login)

autologin for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with XFCE4 this works:

(all as root using sudo)

0) set display manager to lightdm

dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

check settings with

lightdm --show-config

1) enable login without password

under Users and Groups

set the Not asked login option for the concerned user.

2) create and edit a new file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/01_username.conf

vim /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/01_username.conf

and set

[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=username
autologin-user-timeout=0

replace "username" according; do NOT set autologin-user-timeout other than 0, does not work!

This solution worked fine with a nearly vanilla installation without gnome and without unity.

edited Apr 25 '20 at 08:21

answered Apr 25 '20 at 07:41

opinion_no9

975

How can step 1) be done? – Foo Oct 02 '21 at 17:17
Hallo @Paolo, good question, I missed this detail, sorry: Start CLI, invoke "users-admin". This shall start an slightly advanced GUI tool for user admin. "users-admin" should be available for all distros out of the repositories (no dodgy "downlods"). In this GUI for each user there should be a password section. Click on it and look out for some phrase about asking for login passwd. Language dependent. I can not tell you immediately how to resolve this without GUI tool from CLI, should be feasible. Some of the following tipps from other contributors do describe it. – opinion_no9 Oct 06 '21 at 07:23

Leathan · Answer 9 · 2020-12-01T03:54:14.570

1

For kali-rolling: (may work for other kali versions)

sudo sed -i '/^\[Seat:\*\]$/a autologin-user=YOUR_USERNAME\nautologin-user-timeout=0' /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

then create/add yourself to autologin group

sudo groupadd -r autologin
sudo gpasswd -a username autologin

and reboot.

the command uses a seds insert after regular expression match feature to insert the line needed in the right section, you can alternatively just edit the file and add autologin-user= in the Seat section.

edited Dec 01 '20 at 03:54

answered Nov 26 '20 at 14:05

Leathan

135

Does also work with Arch, the user have to be in a group named autologin – Tom Kuschel Feb 01 '24 at 02:32

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 16 '11 at 19:01

1

Search for "User Accounts" application. Select the account you want to autologin Toggle the Automatic Login switch to On

That should do the work.

answered Oct 16 '11 at 19:01

Fernando

348

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 03 '17 at 09:50

1

I can confirm that this works for 16.04.
Using your favourite editor, amend /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/60-lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf.
Add autologin-user=xxxx to the file, for example:

[Seat:*]
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter
autologin-user=wmurphy

Remember to also set the Not asked to login option under Users and Groups.

edited Jun 03 '17 at 09:50

Zanna

70,465

answered Jun 03 '17 at 09:19

Wari Murphy

11
1

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 16 '13 at 14:37

0

I have 12.10 xubuntu. In users and groups choose your user, and click word "Change..." next to "Password:" (it does not look like a button, what might be a bit misleading). There you can change password, or at the bottom mark "Don't ask for password on login" box.

Hope it works.

answered Jan 16 '13 at 14:37

Chris

1

Thank you very much Chris. However, as explained in my question, this solution is not displayed in User Accounts. – Agmenor Jan 17 '13 at 18:34

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 11 '13 at 23:11

0

I just discovered that, I need to have ubuntu-desktop to be install before lightdm could function. This solved my issue when trying to get lightdm to actually login in without going in loop.

The reason for the system to go in loop may be because lightdm needs the ubuntu desktop before it may work.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

answered Jun 11 '13 at 23:11

Faron

1,398
10
14

This is absolutely wrong, since I'm using lightdm with openbox environment only – Patrizio Bertoni Sep 19 '17 at 14:54
Can you point to a link for how to do this? I had set lightdm.conf user-session=LXDE, then switched that to openbox as per /usr/share/xessions/openbox.desktop, but it keeps starting LXDE. – naasking Sep 04 '18 at 11:40

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Nov 20 '17 at 09:55

0

I had the same problem, I solved it with the following steps:

login as root: sudo su

enter the file:

sudo nano /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/60-lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

at the bottom add:
```
autologin-user=xxxx
```
save the content of the file then exit and reboot.

This should definitely work.

edited Nov 20 '17 at 09:55

Olorin

3,488

answered Nov 20 '17 at 09:09

SH ShaHad

11

How do I enable auto-login in LightDM?

14 Answers14

Linked

Related