How can I invoke a user switch from the command line?

Question

In 11.10 I used 'gdmflexiserver -xnest' to switch users without logging out however I think gdm has now been completely removed.

I'm trying to bind a keyboard shortcut to do the equivalent of 'Me Menu>Switch User Account...'.

How can I invoke a user switch in 12.04?

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '12 at 16:15

21

gdmflexiserver as a legacy option to provide the greeter switcher service during the transition between GDM and LightDM.

This has now been dropped from 12.04.

The replacement command is:

dm-tool switch-to-greeter

Other useful dm-tool options (dm-tool --help):

enter image description here

answered Mar 10 '12 at 16:15

fossfreedom

172,746

unlike the me menu dm-tool swich-to-greeter doesn't lock session you just left. – ijk Mar 17 '12 at 16:24
On ubuntu 16.04 dm-tool swich-to-greeter does lock session you just left. – Stéphane Gourichon Aug 13 '16 at 17:26
If like us you want to switch without typing password every time, consider this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/811953/switching-between-two-opened-x-sessions-without-reauthenticating – Stéphane Gourichon Aug 15 '16 at 21:39
it doesn't log out the session you just left :P – Frank N Oct 30 '16 at 03:41
Does not work in 17.10 anymore. Maybe because ubuntu now uses GDM? – Matmarbon Oct 27 '17 at 17:17
@Matmarbon correct - as the answer mentions - this works for LightDM only. – fossfreedom Oct 27 '17 at 22:53
@Matmarbon Xubuntu 18.04 uses lightdm and you can, too. Canonical continues support for lightdm and it might even be the default again for Ubuntu. – Stéphane Gourichon May 28 '18 at 10:00

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '12 at 10:55

-1

You can have several users logged in at the same time and switch between them with alt+ctrl+F1-8. That doesn't allow you to have another x server in a window. By the way; GDM has not been removed. It's just not used by default. You can easily install it: http://apt.ubuntu.com/p/gdm.

answered Mar 08 '12 at 10:55

Jo-Erlend Schinstad

29,531

1

I really dont think that is what the user is asking here. – Bruno Pereira Mar 08 '12 at 11:11
My fault, I updated the question to make it clearer what Im trying to achieve. I know GDM is still available but most of the functionality is being moved to lightDM. In 11.10, the GDM command 'gdmflexiserver -xnest' would start another x server using the LightDM protocol allowing a user to log in using the GUI. But now GDM is not installed by default so there must be a replacement command that does the same but is lightdm native. – edm Mar 08 '12 at 11:17
You can use ctrl+alt+F7 and ctrl+alt+F8 to switch between two logged in users when they are already logged in. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Mar 08 '12 at 16:27

How can I invoke a user switch from the command line?

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