Man page 8 : gdm3

gdm3 - GNOME Display Manager

gdm3

gdm3 is the equivalent of xdm (1x) or wdm (1x), but uses the GNOME libraries to provide a GNOME look-and-feel. It provides the GNOME equivalent of a \*(L"login:\*(R" prompt.

gdm3 reads /etc/gdm3/daemon.conf for its configuration. For each local display, gdm starts an X server and runs a minimal GNOME session including a graphical greeter. If configured so, the main gdm process also listens for XDMCP requests from remote displays. These requests can either be direct, causing gdm3 to start a session on the remote display, or indirect, causing a chooser to be opened.

When managing a display, gdm3 attempts to execute /etc/gdm3/Init/display, or /etc/gdm3/Init/Default if that does not exist. When a user logs in, gdm3 first attempts /etc/gdm3/PreSession/display (or /etc/gdm3/PreSession/Default), and then one of the sessions defined in /usr/share/xsessions. When the session has completed, gdm attempts to run /etc/gdm3/PostSession/display, or /etc/gdm3/PostSession/Default.

gdm3 maintains information about the displays it is managing in /var/lib/gdm3. This includes xauth information, so this directory is not readable to normal users.

gdm3 uses PAM to perform authentication using the config file /etc/pam.d/gdm3.

Martin Kasper Petersen <>

This manual page written by Steve Haslam <> for Debian GNU/Linux. Updated by RaphaA\*~Xl Hertzog <>, Ryan Murray <> and Josselin Mouette <>.