I want to trim openSuSE Tumbleweed from as many services and processes running that I don’t need as possible, and replace the few I need with more lightweight equivalents.
Right now, my target is display manager/login screen. SDDM is nice, but according to htop, it takes 113MB even after login, so it needs to be replaced with something slimmer, preferably something that takes at most half of that amount. But what would you recommend?
LightDM (?)
LXDM (?)
Have a read here:
Already saw that, but it seems like those are instructions for debian-based distros (like Ubuntu), not openSuSE. Bricked my system multiple times by following Ubuntu tutorials on openSuSE.
Install some Display-Managers.
Use:
update-alternatives --display default-displaymanager
to show all installed and the current Display-Manager
update-alternatives --config default-displaymanager
to switch to another installed Display-Manager
With
update-alternatives --config default-xsession.desktop
you can switch your Default Desktop Environment.
$ zypper se -d -s "display manager"
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
S | Name | Type | Version | Arch | Repository
---+---------------------------------+---------+---------------+--------+----------------------
i+ | gdm | package | 47.0-1.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| gdm-branding-Aeon | package | 20240324-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
| gdm-branding-MicroOS | package | 20190625-1.13 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | gdm-branding-openSUSE | package | 15.1-3.3 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
| gdm-branding-upstream | package | 47.0-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
| gdm-devel | package | 47.0-1.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | gdm-schema | package | 47.0-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | gdmflexiserver | package | 47.0-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | gnome-control-center-user-faces | package | 47.1.1+9-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
i | gnome-session-xsession | package | 47.0.1-3.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | libgdm1 | package | 47.0-1.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| libXdmcp-devel | package | 1.1.5-1.2 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| libXdmcp-devel-32bit | package | 1.1.5-1.2 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | libXdmcp6 | package | 1.1.5-1.2 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | libXdmcp6-32bit | package | 1.1.5-1.2 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| lightdm | package | 1.32.0-4.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| lightdm-deepin-greeter | package | 5.5.48-3.2 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| lightdm-gtk-greeter | package | 2.0.8-1.19 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| lxqt-wayland-session | package | 0.1.0-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
| pantheon-session | package | 8.0.1-1.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
| river-contrib | package | 0.3.5-2.1 | noarch | Main Repository (OSS)
| sddm | package | 0.21.0-4.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
| sddm-qt6 | package | 0.21.0-4.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | sessreg | package | 1.1.3-1.6 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | typelib-1_0-Gdm-1_0 | package | 47.0-1.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | xdm | package | 1.1.16-2.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
i+ | xinit | package | 1.4.2-3.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)
From this listing, you can see that gdm, lightdm, sddm, and xdm are available in the main OSS repo.
lightdm might be your best option, or xdm (but that one, as I recall, is pretty barebones).
XDM is already installed, and clearly barebones. It provides no interface to select a session type. In openSUSE, its normal use is to start other DMs. I don’t know whether or not is supports starting Wayland sessions, because the only place I ever open one is on Neon. I do use XDM mainly on a bunch of Plasma 5 & 6 installations, while SDDM on zero openSUSE installations. KDM3 is also available in its dedicated KDE3 repo, and what I use on about half of all Leap and TW installations here, with no “theme”, since its built-in “theme” has been my favorite since it was born over 2 decades ago.
On my Hyprland setup since it’s only a single user I use seatd and tty1 to login my user and fire up Hyprland…
Yes, no display manager at all might suit some users. Otherwise consider greetd + tuigreet for a minimal display manager.
If there is only a single user in your machine then xdm is it. Once you remove all your DM it will be automagically replace with xdm if memory serves.
Number of configured users is irrelevant to what XDM does or doesn’t do.
If any DM is installed, so is XDM. It’s the openSUSE default DM, so is installed by default for any graphical context regardless of any DEs, WMs or other DMs, or none other. Also by default, if any other is installed, that other is the one providing the greeter and any theme, but systemd starts graphical.target using XDM to handoff to another if present and not configured otherwise. With only it installed, XDM accepts login name first then password like any of the others, just doesn’t prefill previous or specific, or provide to select a session type, or any means to switch user, shutdown, reboot, or style.
That is no more correct.
I don’t know whether it counts as the most lightweight, but WindowMaker is lightweight and installable by yast/zypper so you don’t need to do anything too difficult.
This topic is about lightweight display managers, not window managers.
According to TW’s XDM changelog dated 27 Nov, this didn’t happen yet as of then. Can you show newer information to support your assertion?
You are talking about “any DM”, how is xdm changelog relevant here? Check changelog of “any DM”, check dependencies of “any DM”.
At least gdm is happy without xdm.
I read above as until XDM stops being a wrapper for other DMs in openSUSE, its installation is required for “all display managers”. All my TW, Slowroll & Leap installations here that have any installed DM include XDM among installed packages. All are using XDM as a wrapper for some other DM, unless XDM is the only one installed.