X display manager

In the X Window System, an X display manager is a graphical login manager which starts a login session
on an X server from the same or another computer.

A display manager presents the user with a

login screen. A session starts when a user
successfully enters a valid combination of
username and password.

When the display manager runs on the user's

computer, it starts the X server before
presenting the user the login screen, optionally
repeating when the user logs out. In this
condition, the DM realizes in the X Window
System the functionality of getty and
login on character-mode terminals. When A login screen shown by the SDDM display manager.
the display manager runs on a remote
computer, it acts like a telnet server, requesting
username and password and starting a remote session.

X11 Release 3 introduced display managers in October 1988 with the aim of supporting the standalone X
terminals, just coming onto the market. Various display managers continue in routine use to provide a
graphical login prompt on standalone computer workstations running X. X11R4 introduced the X Display
Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP) in December 1989 to fix problems in the X11R3 implementation.

Contents
History
Local and remote display management
X Display Manager Control Protocol
Security
Implementations
Active
Inactive
See also
Sources
References
External links

History
XDM (the X Window Display Manager) originated in X11R3. This first version, written by Keith Packard
of the MIT X Consortium, had several limitations, the most notable of which was that it could not detect
when users switched X terminals off and on. In X11R3, XDM only knew about an X terminal from its
entry in the Xservers file, but XDM only consulted this file when it started. Thus every time a user
switched a terminal off and on, the system administrator had to send a SIGHUP signal to XDM to instruct
it to rescan Xservers.

XDMCP arrived with the introduction of X11R4 (December 1989). With XDMCP, the X server must
actively request a display manager connection from the host. An X server using XDMCP therefore no
longer requires an entry in Xservers.

Local and remote display management

A display manager can run on the same computer where the user sits—starting one or more X servers,
displaying the login screen at the beginning and (optionally) every time the user logs out—or on a remote
one, working according to the XDMCP protocol.

The XDMCP protocol mandates that

the X server starts autonomously and
connects to the display manager. In the
X Window System paradigm, the
server runs on the computer providing
the display and input devices. A server
can connect, using the XDMCP
protocol, to a display manager running
on another computer, requesting it to
start the session. In this case, the X
server acts as a graphical telnet client
while the display manager acts like a
telnet server: users start programs from
the computer running the display
manager, while their input and output
take place on the computer where the
server (and the user) sits.

An administrator can typically

configure an XDMCP Chooser
program running on the local computer
or X terminal to connect to a specific
In the X Window System, the X server runs on the computer in front
host's X display manager or to display
of the user. The X server may connect to a display manager
a list of suitable hosts that the user can
running on another computer, starting a session which may
choose from. Most implementations
comprise a variety of programs running on that other computer.
enable such a list to contain:
Relative to X server the XDM is a client. See client–server
separation in X11.
1. a predefined set of hosts and
their respective network
addresses, and/or
2. a set of hosts (on the local TCP/IP subnet) that the XDMCP Chooser determines by a
network broadcast to the available display managers.
When the user selects a host from the list, the XDMCP Chooser running on the local machine will send a
message to the selected remote computer's display manager and instruct it to connect the X server on the
local computer or terminal.

X Display Manager Control Protocol

The X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP) uses UDP port 177. An X server requests that a
display manager start a session by sending a Query packet. If the display manager allows access for that
X server, it responds by sending a Willing packet back to the X server. (The X server can also send
BroadcastQuery or IndirectQuery packets to start a session - this mechanism for requesting a
session resembles using DHCP to request an IP address.)

The display manager must authenticate itself to the server. To do this the X server sends a Request
packet to the display manager, which returns an Accept packet. If the Accept packet contains the
response the X server expects, the display manager is authenticated. Producing the correct response might
require the display manager to have access to a secret key, for example. If authentication succeeds, the X
server sends a Manage packet to inform the display manager. Then the display manager displays its login
screen by connecting to the X server as a regular X client.

During the session, the server can send KeepAlive packets to the display manager at intervals. If the
display manager fails to respond with an Alive packet within a certain time, the X server presumes that
the display manager has ceased running, and can terminate the connection.

Security

One problem with XDMCP is that, similarly to telnet, the authentication takes place unencrypted. If
snooping is possible, this leaves the system vulnerable to attack. It is more secure to use an ssh tunnel for X
traffic.[1]

Implementations
The X Window System supplies XDM as its standard display manager.

Programmers have developed other X display managers, both commercial and free, offering additional
functionality over the basic display management:

Active
GDM, GNOME implementation
SDDM, recommended display manager for KDE Plasma 5 and LXQt. Successor to KDM.
LightDM, a lightweight, modular, cross-desktop, fully themeable desktop display manager by
Canonical Ltd.
TWin, the TDE window manager
xlogin display manager (https://github.com/Crakem/xlogin), a lightweight, secure and login
like console display manager for X, written in C.[2][3]

Inactive
 KDM (part of KDE) allows the user to graphically select a window manager or desktop
environment in the login screen
Qingy (http://qingy.sourceforge.net/) ultralight and very configurable graphical login
independent on X Window (uses DirectFB)
XDM-OPTIONS (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xdm-options/) for XDM. Easy full install,
Xhost Phonebook, X Login, X Desktop Chooser, menu-reconfig, repair utils.
LDM, the (remote) Display Manager of the Linux Terminal Server Project
MDM (https://github.com/linuxmint/mdm), a graphical display manager developed for Linux
Mint.
dtlogin (shipped with CDE)
scologin (provided by SCO Open Desktop) also checks for expired passwords and
performs some administrative tasks
WINGs Display Manager (using the WINGs widget-set used in Window Maker)
entranced/entrance (employs the architecture used in Enlightenment v.17, on hiatus since
2005)
LXDM (https://wiki.lxde.org/en/LXDM), a lightweight cross-desktop and fully themeable
display manager, part of LXDE
SLiM, an independent login manager.
CDM (https://github.com/ghost1227/cdm), an ultralight Console Display Manager for Unix
xlogin (http://www.jonshouse.co.uk/xlogin.cgi), X Window login with separate XDMCP
server
Enter (http://enter.sourceforge.net/), a lightweight graphical login manager
Orthos (https://web.archive.org/web/20121106004540/http://repos.e-x-a.org/view.cgi/orthos),
another lightweight solution with very configurable animated themes that use OpenGL only
nodm (https://web.archive.org/web/20091223224641/http://www.enricozini.org/sw/nodm/),
auto-login display manager for systems like kiosks, appliances and mobile phones

On some Unix distributions, the default display manager is selected in file $PREFIX/etc/X11/default-
display-manager.

See also
Login manager
X Window System protocols and architecture

Sources
XDMCP specification (https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/libXdmcp/xdmcp.html), from
the X.Org release documentation
XDM manual page (https://web.archive.org/web/20051102064732/http://www.xfree86.org/cu
rrent/xdm.1.html) (XFree86.org)
Linda Mui and Eric Pearce, X Window System Volume 8: X Window System Administrator's
Guide for X11 Release 4 and Release 5, 3rd edition (O'Reilly and Associates, July 1993;
softcover ISBN 0-937175-83-8)

References
1. "Apps - GNOME Wiki!" (http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/docs/2.14/security.html).
 2. "Build software better, together" (https://github.com/topics/display-manager).
3. "Display manager - ArchWiki" (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Display_manager).

External links
Linux XDMCP HOWTO (https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XDMCP-HOWTO/index.html)
Taming The X Display Manager (http://www.rru.com/~meo/pubsntalks/xrj/xdm.html)
The X Display Manager (https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/x-xdm.html), from
the FreeBSD Handbook (https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/)
Linux login with a Windows box and XDMCP (https://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/linux-login
-with-a-windows-box-and-xdmcp-040607) A guide to logging into linux using windows.

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