Hack Ubuntu 9.10 Disabling Userlist in GDM Login Screen
if you wanted to disable the userlist in the GDM Login screen, for security reasons, follow these steps
1. Logout of your current session and return to the GDM
2. Switch to the tty command line prompt using Ctrl-Alt-F1
3. Login using your normal login/password
4. at the command line prompt type: export DISPLAY=:0.0
5. then type: sudo -u gdm gconf-editor
6. Switch back to the gdm screen using ALT-F7
7. The Configuration Editor should be loaded.
8. Go to apps/gdm/simple-greeter.
9. Change the Value of disable_user_list to TRUE.
10. Close the Configuration Editor.
11. Reboot your machine, there will be no user list in the GDM.
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November 8, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Well, it’s a start.
GDM no longer shows the user list, but the operation now is a little counter-intuitive. You have to press the LOGIN button before you enter your name; if you just start typing without pressing LOGIN, it brings up a text field that appears to do absolutely nothing.
Either way, thanks for your help.
November 17, 2009 at 8:53 pm
just do it from the command line:
sudo gconftool-2 –direct –config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults \
–type bool –set /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true
November 18, 2009 at 10:40 am
thats great if it works, let me try it
thanks for the comment
November 29, 2009 at 7:49 pm
@joe:
works like a charm dude; thanks
@others:
just remember to user 2 -’s for the options in the command:
sudo gconftool-2 –direct –config-source \xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults –type bool\ –set /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true
November 29, 2009 at 7:51 pm
ah… its the markup of this forum (of course..;)
anyways, i meant the – - before direct, config-source, type and set.
January 3, 2010 at 2:05 am
[...] the GDM login screen by allowing you to change some options which would normally be changed with GConf entries and other methods. (The links lead to tutorials on another [...]
February 5, 2010 at 3:26 am
These instructions are a bit over-the-top.
All I do to change the GDM appearance is prefix the app I want with “gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch”. I even have a menu item.
So to fiddle with the gconf ctrl-F2:
gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gconf-editor
or to change the appearance:
gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties
No need to logoff, reboot or commandline. Imho this is much easier than the pre-karmic way of doing things.
July 4, 2010 at 8:57 pm
What if there are many users with different preferences? Can I decide which users will show up in the login list and which of them will be hidden? Enable or disable a login list is not flexible enough.
July 4, 2010 at 9:03 pm
I found an answer to my question:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1508887
simple but not obvious.