https://github.com/jezerm/web-greeter
A modern, visually appealing greeter for LightDM.
https://github.com/jezerm/web-greeter
lightdm lightdm-greeter lightdm-web-greeter nody-greeter web-greeter
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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A modern, visually appealing greeter for LightDM.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/jezerm/web-greeter
- Owner: JezerM
- License: gpl-3.0
- Created: 2021-06-17T05:28:34.000Z (almost 5 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2024-11-19T04:14:01.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-06-16T20:44:01.947Z (12 months ago)
- Topics: lightdm, lightdm-greeter, lightdm-web-greeter, nody-greeter, web-greeter
- Language: Python
- Homepage: https://web-greeter-page.vercel.app
- Size: 16.4 MB
- Stars: 239
- Watchers: 8
- Forks: 14
- Open Issues: 19
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: NEWS.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: COPYING
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
Web Greeter
A LightDM greeter made with PyQt6
A modern, visually appealing greeter for LightDM, that allows to create web based themes with HTML,
CSS and JavaScript.
Also, check out [nody-greeter][nody-greeter], a greeter made in **Node.js** with **Electron**!
## [See Live Demo][live_demo]
Gruvbox and Dracula themes!
## Features
- Create themes with HTML, CSS and JavaScript!
- Should work everywhere.
- JavaScript error handling, allowing to load the default theme.
- Themes could be simple, or very complex.
- Battery and brightness control.
- Tab completion for zsh and bash.
## Available distro packages
### Arch
- AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/web-greeter/
```sh
yay -S web-greeter
```
### Ubuntu/Debian
Download from the [latest release](https://github.com/JezerM/web-greeter/releases/latest) and
install with apt.
```sh
apt install ./web-greeter-VER-DISTRO.deb
```
## Dependencies
### Build dependencies
- Python 3.13 or above
- uv ([astral.sh][astral-uv])
- Meson
- Ninja
- tsc (`npm i -g typescript`)
- base-devel (build-essential)
### Ubuntu/Debian
```sh
sudo apt install \
\
python3 \
python3-pip \
meson \
ninja-build \
node-typescript \
build-essential \
\
liblightdm-gobject-dev \
gobject-introspection \
libxcb1-dev \
libx11-dev \
libcairo2-dev \
libgirepository-2.0-dev
```
Install uv ([astral.sh][astral-uv-install]) according to its manual.
### Arch Linux
```
sudo pacman -Sy \
\
meson \
ninja \
typescript \
base-devel \
\
lightdm \
python3 \
gobject-introspection \
libxcb \
libx11 \
cairo
```
You can also install web-greeter from the [AUR][web-greeter-aur].
## Download & Install
```sh
git clone --recursive https://github.com/JezerM/web-greeter.git
cd web-greeter
meson build -Dprefix=/usr -Dsysconfdir=/etc
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install
```
This will build **web-greeter** with Pyside6 and Nuitka, and then package all the files to be installed.
See [latest release][releases].
### Uninstall
Use `sudo ninja -C build uninstall` to uninstall all files.
## Theme JavaScript API
Documentation is available at [web-greeter-page/docs][web-greeter-docs].
You can access the man-pages `man web-greeter` for some documentation and explanation. Also, you can
explore the provided [themes](https://github.com/JezerM/web-greeter-themes/tree/master/themes) for real use cases.
Additionally, you can install the TypeScript types definitions inside your theme with npm:
```sh
npm install nody-greeter-types
```
## Additional features
### Brightness control
`acpi` is the only tool needed to control the brightness, besides a compatible device.
This functionality is based on [acpilight][acpilight] replacement for `xbacklight`.
udev rules are needed to be applied before using it, check [acpilight rules][acpilight_rules].
Then, lightdm will need to be allowed to change backlight values, to do so add lightdm user
to the **video** group: `sudo usermod -a -G video lightdm`
Enable it inside `/etc/lightdm/web-greeter.toml`
### Battery status
`acpi` and `acpi_listen` are the only tools you need (and a battery).
This functionality is based on ["bat" widget][bat_widget] from ["lain" awesome-wm library][lain].
You can enable it inside `/etc/lightdm/web-greeter.toml`
## Debugging
You can run the greeter from within your desktop session if you add the following line to the desktop
file for your session located in `/usr/share/xsessions/`: `X-LightDM-Allow-Greeter=true`.
You have to log out and log back in after adding that line. Then you can run the greeter
from command line.
Themes can be opened with a debug console if you set `debug_mode` as `true`
inside `/etc/lightdm/web-greeter.toml`. Or, you could run the `web-greeter` with
the parameter `--debug`. I recommend to use the last one, as it is easier and handy.
```sh
web-greeter --debug
```
Check `web-greeter --help` for more commands.
> ***Note:*** Do not use `lightdm --test-mode` as it is not supported in some desktop sessions.
## Troubleshooting
Before setting **web-greeter** as your LightDM Greeter, you should make sure it does work also with LightDM:
- Run **web-greeter** as root with `--no-sandbox` flag ("Unable to determine socket to daemon" and "XLib" related errors are expected)
- Run `lightdm --test-mode`. Although it's not supported, if it does work then it could help to debug lightdm.
### LightDM crashes and tries to recover over and over again
LightDM does this when the greeter crashes, so it could mean **web-greeter** was not installed
correctly, or some dependencies were updated/removed after a distro update.
## Known issues
### Fedora
I was not able to reproduce the installation process in Fedora Workstation 43, due to some issues related to Nuitka, which resulted in segmentation faults when running web-greeter. As for now, I will not support web-greeter in Fedora; if anyone is able to successfully build and execute it, let me know!
[nody-greeter]: https://github.com/JezerM/nody-greeter "Nody Greeter"
[astral-uv]: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ "Astral UV"
[astral-uv-install]: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/ "Install Astral UV"
[web-greeter-aur]: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/web-greeter "Web Greeter AUR"
[acpilight]: https://gitlab.com/wavexx/acpilight/ "acpilight"
[acpilight_rules]: https://gitlab.com/wavexx/acpilight/-/blob/master/90-backlight.rules "udev rules"
[bat_widget]: https://github.com/lcpz/lain/blob/master/widget/bat.lua "Battery widget"
[lain]: https://github.com/lcpz/lain "Lain awesome library"
[web-greeter-docs]: https://web-greeter-page.vercel.app "Documentation"
[live_demo]: https://jezerm.github.io/web-greeter-themes/ "Live Demo"
[releases]: https://github.com/JezerM/web-greeter/releases "Releases"