Score:0

Custom login screen with screenfetch and glances

us flag

I have a home Ubuntu server installation with Lubuntu desktop (sddm display manager), and I would like to make a custom login screen that shows:

  • The prompt to log in with the user on the left
  • 2 terminal applications on the right:
    • glances
    • screenfetch

I imagine it like this:

image.

Is it possible to add terminal applications to the sddm login screen, and if so, any guidance on how?

Zinix avatar
us flag
As i said in the post i am a rookie and i was looking for an answer since i haven't seen anyone doing this. But thanks for pointing this out.
guiverc avatar
cn flag
`sddm` already has themes, so I'd opt for selecting a `sddm` theme you like & just using it. However please note: some themes use features Lubuntu doesn't include by default; so you may need to add extra packages to your system loosing some of it's *lightness* just for *dressing* (*switching to another DM is likely equal but another option*). I generally don't consider it worth it & would just stick to changing wallpaper. (~related - https://discourse.lubuntu.me/t/change-login-screen-in-lubuntu-21-10/2877)
NotTheDr01ds avatar
vn flag
Hello and Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. I personally don't feel your question has received the best reception here so far, and for that I'm sorry. I'm not necessarily a "rookie" myself, but I don't have any experience customizing login screens either, and it doesn't seem obvious to *me* how to do this, or even if it is possible. That said, for questions here, it's highly recommended to say "What you've tried", even if that's just linking to pages you've found when searching for something like "run application on sddm login screen", or the sddm doc itself. Thanks!
Score:1
vn flag

I'm not a huge fan of providing "negative answers", but I wanted to share what I found in some research on this question myself.

Again, as I mentioned in the comments, I'm not by any means an expert in this area, but (I think) I know enough to understand what's going on when reading through the documentation. That said, I'd be more than happy to be wrong, and to have someone post an answer on how to do this.

Even if it's possible, this would not be easy, and definitely not in skillset of a Linux rookie. No offense -- We've all been there, and glad to have you aboard!

I think you have an interesting idea there, and I'd love to see an implementation, honestly. But it won't be "easy", I don't believe.

There are (at a very high level) a few tasks that I see here:

  • It appears that sddm themes are written in QML, the Qt Modeling Language. Basic theming shouldn't be too bad, especially since there are plenty of examples to work from. But you would need to learn the language, to some degree. This isn't really a beginner-friendly task. If you want to ultimately get to the example you provided, at least start with learning "basic" theming (without glances and screenfetch) first.

    As you mentioned in the comments, I also didn't see any theme examples that ran terminal applications (or any application) in scrolling through multiple pages of themes.

  • Second, you'll need to be able to run a terminal widget of some sort in your QML code. There's no built-in way of doing this in QML, but there are some options out there. For example, this Stack Overflow question points to QTermWidget. That's actually part of the LXQt project, which is what lubuntu uses, of course. So that might not be too bad (for an experience Qt developer, at least).

  • Finally, you'll need to run those applications as a limited user pre-login. Again, I'm not sure how to do this in sddm, but I would expect this to be the "easy part". Still, something that you'll need more experience with Linux in order to do (especially to do it securely), I would think.

Zinix avatar
us flag
Thanks for the help, this is the answer i needed in order to finish my research. I will take a look at this. If i find anything i'll share it in this post.
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