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< SIGs‎ | KDE

Revision as of 15:52, 12 March 2013 by Mbriza (talk | contribs)

Switching from KDM to LightDM login manager

As it is possible to compile kde-workspace without KDM using a cmake parameter [1], we can replace the default KDE login manager (KDM) with others, namely LightDM that has improved its KDE support dramatically lately.

Pro:

  • Code base - more recent, supports multiple graphical backends as Ubuntu just announced Mir (so adding Wayland eventually will be easier)
    • In comparison, KDM contains major portion of code of XDM which means the backend is basically pure C communicating with the C++/Qt frontend. Many very handy facilities for managing X are missing, not mentioning the fact there is going to be need to support Wayland in future.
  • Better performance (according to their presentation, my experince so far is not that great - mbriza) and "light"
    • I'm a bit sceptical about this point, will measure precise memory and CPU requirements in the future..
  • Simpler API for creating greeters
  • Powermanagement is present
    • Although it is present, is it really a pro as we'll be adding an other powermanager separated from PowerDevil? The settings would differ or would need to be propagated. Also, it's now provided by systemd, too. Will have to investigate further.
  • Multi-head support is better - Prompt is displayed on the screen where the mouse cursor is

Con:

  • solved: Switching users in KDE is not possible. [2]
  • Dependency on glib

What needs to be done:

  • Add the conditional KDM inclusion parameter to kde-workspace
  • Edit kde-settings not to ship KDM settings

Links