content/blog/2022-10-30-linux-display-manager.org
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Method for Disabling or Changing the Display Manager on Void Linux Systems
Display Manager Services
In order to change the display manager on Void Linux - or any other Linux distro - you need to identify the currently enabled display manager.
Disabling the Current Display Manager
Void Linux only has one ISO available for download with a pre-built
display manager at the time of this post: the XFCE ISO. If you've
installed this version, the pre-assigned display manager is lxdm. If
you installed another display manager, replace lxdm in the following
command with the display manager you have installed.
To disable lxdm, simply remove the service symlink:
sudo rm /var/service/lxdmEnabling a New Display Manager
If you want to enable a new display manager, you can do so after lxdm
is disabled. Make sure to replace <new_display_manager> with your new
DM, such as gdm, xdm, etc.
sudo ln -s /etc/sv/<new_display_manager> /var/service
Set Up .xinitrc
Depending on your setup, you may need to create a few X files, such as
~/.xinitrc. For my personal set-up, I created this file to launch the
i3wm as my desktop.
nano ~/.xinitrc#!/bin/sh
exec i3
If you run a desktop other than i3, simply replace i3 with the shell
command that launches that desktop.
Set Up Your Shell Profile
Finally, in order to automatically launch an X session upon login, you
will need to edit the .bash_profile (bash) or .zprofile (zsh) files
for your shell:
nano ~/.zprofile
Add the following snippet to the end of the shell profile file. This
will execute the startx command upon login.
if [ -z "${DISPLAY}" ] && [ "${XDG_VTNR}" -eq 1 ]; then
exec startx
fi
Alternatively, you can ignore this step and simply choose to manually
execute startx upon login. This can be useful if you have issues with
your desktop or like to manually launch different desktops by choice.