LightDM - Pruning / purging multiple unecessary WM options

[Drone4four]

What is with ldm WM (Gnome) options? When I select the WM options menu in ldm, this is what I see: https://i.imgur.com/1bz956w.jpg

I understand, accept, and am happy to see these options at the bottom:

GNOME on Xorg
GNOME on Wayland

But that should be it. Next you can see:

GNOME Classic on Xorg
GNOME Classic on Wayland

I am uninterested in running Classic versions of Gnome.

What happens next is really strange:

GNOME Classic
GNOME Classic
GNOME
GNOME

It doesn't specify which protocol, whether Xorg or Wayland.

How do I prune / delete / remove all of these redundant and non-descript options?

[Holger_Gehrke]

There should be .desktop files for sessions in '/usr/share/xsessions/'. Moving them out of that directory should remove them from the list. You can tell which file is which by checking the 'name=' lines in the files.

Holger

[Drone4four]

Here are the contents of /usr/share/xsessions:

$ pwd
/usr/share/xsessions
$ ls -la
total 28
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Aug 29 16:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 362 root root 12288 Aug 29 16:46 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Aug 21 04:51 bax2k23Aug21
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  7915 Apr  9 19:56 gnome-xorg.desktop

Rather than deleting/removing, I just created a backup directory and moved all the ones I didn't like into them like so:

$ cd bax2k23Aug21 
$ pwd
/usr/share/xsessions/bax2k23Aug21
$ ls -la
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 21 04:51 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug 29 16:46 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  984 Aug 10 18:08 e16-gnome2-session.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  211 Aug 10 18:08 e16-gnome3-session.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  969 Aug 10 18:08 e16-kde-session.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8139 Apr 28 20:21 gnome-classic.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7617 Apr 28 20:21 gnome-classic-xorg.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7830 Apr  9 19:56 gnome.desktop

So I did what you recommended, @AgoHolger_Gehrke. Some of the options are gone. Thank you. See here: https://imgur.com/a/3gvBJUf. That's progress. But there are some that are still not necessary.

ldm now presents:

GNOME
GNOME Classic
GNOME Classic on Wayland
GNOME on Wayland
GNOME on Xorg

How do I prune these further so that I only see:

GNOME on Wayland
GNOME on Xorg

How do I get rid of all those "Classic" options as well as the non-descript "GNOME"?

Where else on a Linux system with ldm as the greeter might configurations be stored for me to change to achieve the desired end result?

[1fallen]

for myself I just:

ls /usr/share/xsessions/
kodi.desktop  xfce.desktop

remove the one I don't want::

sudo rm /usr/share/xsessions/kodi.desktop

a check with:

ls /usr/share/xsessions/
xfce.desktop

BTW Kodi still works I just want cleared out of view.

BUT THE BEST is to back it up:

sudo mv /usr/share/xsessions/gnome-classic.desktop gnome-classic.desktop.backup

[Drone4four]

Hi @Ago1fallen, Thank you for your reply. Although you recommend that I remove or backup the `.desktop` files in `/usr/share/xsessions` that I do not want. Not sure if you ready my most recent post, but I thought I explained I already tried what you said and it is still not working for me.

[1fallen]

This is where they are stored, *something else is in the way then, and yes i read your post #3
So show us this:

apt policy gdm3

[Holger_Gehrke]

Two things I'd try:
1. Take a look at the contents of the desktop file you've left in the directory (normal desktop files should only define exactly one item, but who knows ... ; .desktop files are just normal text files, so 'less' or your favourite editor will work).
2. Move the backups somewhere outside of /usr/share/xsessions in case the search for desktop files is recursive

Holger

[Drone4four]

Two things I'd try:
Move the backups somewhere outside of /usr/share/xsessions in case the search for desktop files is recursive

Thank you for the suggestion @Holger_Gehrke. I moved the backups out from /usr/share/xessions into my home directory. The contents of /usr/share/xessions now look like this:

$ cd /usr/share/xsessions 
$ ls -la
total 24
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep  4 07:57 .
drwxr-xr-x 362 root root 12288 Sep  4 07:56 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  7915 Apr  9 19:56 gnome-xorg.desktop

I rebooted. ldm is still presenting 3 unnecessary entries:

GNOME
GNOME Classic
GNOME Classic on Wayland
GNOME on Wayland
GNOME on Xorg

I am still trying to get ldm to only present the final 2 in the above list.

Take a look at the contents of the desktop file you've left in the directory (normal desktop files should only define exactly one item, but who knows ... ; .desktop files are just normal text files, so 'less' or your favourite editor will work).

Here are the contents of that one and only `gnome-xorg.desktop` file in `/usr/share/xessions/`:

[Desktop Entry]
Name[ab]=GNOME  Xorg аҟны
Name[af]=GNOME op Xorg
Name[an]=GNOME en Xorg
Name[be]=GNOME на Xorg
Name[bg]=GNOME с Xorg
Name[bn_IN]=Xorg এ জিনোম
Name[ca]=GNOME damunt Xorg
Name[ca@valencia]=GNOME en Xorg
Name[cs]=GNOME na Xorg
Name[da]=GNOME på Xorg
Name[de]=GNOME unter Xorg
Name[el]=GNOME σε Xorg
Name[en_GB]=GNOME on Xorg
Name[eo]=GNOME je Xorg
Name[es]=GNOME en Xorg
Name[et]=GNOME Xorg’iga
Name[eu]=GNOME Xorg gainean
Name[fa]=گنوم روی زورگ
Name[fi]=Gnome Xorgia käyttäen
Name[fr]=GNOME sur Xorg
Name[fur]=GNOME su Xorg
Name[gd]=GNOME air Xorg
Name[gl]=GNOME en Xorg
Name[gu]=Xorg પર GNOME
Name[he]=‏GNOME על גבי Xorg
Name[hr]=GNOME na Xorgu
Name[hu]=GNOME Xorgon
Name[id]=GNOME pada Xorg
Name[is]=GNOME á Xorg
Name[it]=GNOME su Xorg
Name[ja]=GNOME on Xorg
Name[ka]=GNOME Xorg-ზე
Name[kab]=GNOME ɣef Xorg
Name[kk]=Xorg негізіндегі GNOME
Name[ko]=그놈 (Xorg)
Name[lt]=GNOME Xorg aplinkoje
Name[lv]=GNOME ar Xorg
Name[mjw]=GNOME on Xorg
Name[ml]=ഗ്നോം Xorg ല്*
Name[ms]=GNOME di Xorg
Name[nb]=GNOME på Xorg
Name[ne]=Xorg मा जिनोम
Name[nl]=Gnome op Xorg
Name[oc]=GNOME sus Xorg
Name[pa]=Xorg ਉੱਤੇ ਗਨੋਮ
Name[pl]=GNOME (Xorg)
Name[pt]=GNOME em Xorg
Name[pt_BR]=GNOME sobre Xorg
Name[ro]=GNOME pe Xorg
Name[ru]=GNOME на Xorg
Name[sk]=GNOME cez Xorg
Name[sl]=GNOME na sistemu Xorg
Name[sr]=Гном на Икс серверу
Name[sr@latin]=Gnom na Iks serveru
Name[sv]=GNOME med Xorg
Name[th]=GNOME ใน Xorg
Name[tr]=Xorg üzerinde GNOME
Name[uk]=GNOME через Xorg
Name[zh_CN]=GNOME Xorg
Name[zh_TW]=GNOME 採行 Xorg
Name=GNOME on Xorg
Comment[ab]=Ари асеанс GNOME аҭалара азин шәнаҭоит 
Comment[af]=Die sessie laat u by GNOME aanmeld
Comment[an]=Ista sesión accede a GNOME
Comment[ar]=تولجك هذه الجلسة في جنوم
Comment[as]=এই অধিবেশনে আপোনাক GNOME ত লগিন কৰায়
Comment[ast]=Esta sesión conéuta-y a GNOME
Comment[be]=Сеанс уваходу ў GNOME
Comment[be@latin]=Hetaja sesija ŭruchamlaje GNOME
Comment[bg]=Влизане в GNOME
Comment[bn]=এই সেশনের মাধ্যমে GNOME-এ লগ-ইন করা যাবে
Comment[bn_IN]=এই সেশানের মাধ্যমে GNOME-এ লগ-ইন করা যাবে
Comment[br]=An estez-mañ a lug ac'hanoc'h davet GNOME
Comment[bs]=Ova sesija Vas prijavljuje u GNOME
Comment[ca]=Aquesta sessió us entra al GNOME
Comment[ca@valencia]=Esta sessió vos entra al GNOME
Comment[ckb]=به*م دانیشتنه* ئه*که*ویته* ناو گنومه*وه*
Comment[crh]=Bu oturım sizni GNOME'ğa içeri imzalandırır
Comment[cs]=Toto sezení vás přihlásí do GNOME
Comment[da]=Denne session logger dig ind i GNOME
Comment[de]=Diese Sitzung meldet Sie bei GNOME an
Comment[dz]=ལཱ་ཡུན་འདི་གིས་ ཁྱོད་ ཇི་ནོམ་ནང་ལུ་ ནང་བསྐྱོད་འབདཝ་ཨིན་ 
Comment[el]=Αυτή η συνεδρία σας συνδέει στο GNOME
Comment[en_GB]=This session logs you into GNOME
Comment[en@shaw]=𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑕𐑧𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑤𐑪𐑜𐑟 𐑿 𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑫 ·𐑜𐑯𐑴𐑥
Comment[eo]=Ĉi tiu seanco salutas vin en GNOME
Comment[es]=Esta sesión accede a GNOME
Comment[et]=Selle seansiga logitakse sind GNOME keskkonda sisse
Comment[eu]=Saio honek GNOMEn sartuko zaitu
Comment[fa]=این نشست شما را به گنوم وارد می*کند
Comment[fi]=Tämä istunto kirjautuu Gnomeen
Comment[fr]=Cette session vous connecte dans GNOME
Comment[fur]=Cheste session ti fasarà jentrâ in GNOME
Comment[fy]=Dizze sesje meld jo oan by Gnome
Comment[ga]=Logálann an seisiún seo thú isteach i nGNOME
Comment[gd]=Clàraidh an seisean seo a-steach gu GNOME thu
Comment[gl]=Esta sesión iniciará en GNOME
Comment[gu]=આ સત્ર તમને GNOME માં પ્રવેશ આપે છે
Comment[he]=הפעלה זאת מחברת אותך לשולחן העבודה GNOME
Comment[hi]=यह सत्र गनोम में लॉगइन होगा
Comment[hr]=Ova sesija vas prijavljuje u GNOME
Comment[hu]=Bejelentkezés a GNOME környezetbe
Comment[id]=Sesi ini melogkan Anda ke dalam GNOME
Comment[ie]=Ti es li session de GNOME
Comment[is]=Þessi seta skráir þig inn í GNOME
Comment[it]=Questa sessione esegue l'accesso in GNOME
Comment[ja]=このセッションで GNOME にログインします
Comment[ka]=აქედან შეხვალთ GNOME-ში
Comment[kab]=Tiɣimit-agi ad k-teqqen ɣer GNOME
Comment[kk]=Бұл сессия арқылы GNOME-ға кіресіз
Comment[km]=សម័យ​នេះ​ជា​កំណត់​ហេតុ​ដែល​អ្នក​ទៅ​កាន់ GNOME
Comment[kn]=ಈ ಅಧಿವೇಶನವು ನಿಮ್ಮನ್ನು GNOME ಗೆ ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತದೆ
Comment[ko]=이 세션을 사용하면 그놈에 로그인합니다
Comment[lt]=Šis seansas prijungia jus prie GNOME
Comment[lv]=Šī sesija ieraksta jūs GNOME vidē
Comment[mai]=ई सत्र अहाँक गनोममे लागिन दैछ
Comment[mjw]=Laso session nangli phan GNOME long pon po
Comment[mk]=Оваа сесија Ве најавува во GNOME
Comment[ml]=ഈ പ്രവര്*ത്തനവേള നിങ്ങളെ ഗ്നോമിലേക്ക് കയറ്റുന്നു
Comment[mr]=GNOME मध्ये दाखल करण्याजोगी सत्र लॉग
Comment[ms]=Sesi ini akan mendaftar masuk ke GNOME
Comment[nb]=Denne økten logger inn i GNOME
Comment[nds]=Düsser Törn mellt dik bi GNOME an
Comment[ne]=यो सत्र जिनोम लगईन हुन्छ
Comment[nl]=Deze sessie laat u in Gnome inloggen
Comment[nn]=Denne økta loggar inn i GNOME
Comment[oc]=Aquesta session vos connècta dins GNOME
Comment[or]=ଏହି ଅଧିବେଶନ ଆପଣଙ୍କୁ ନୋମ ରେ ଲଗ କରାଇଥାଏ
Comment[pa]=ਇਹ ਸ਼ੈਸ਼ਨ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਗਨੋਮ ਵਿੱਚ ਲਾਗ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ
Comment[pl]=Ta sesja loguje użytkownika do środowiska GNOME
Comment[ps]=دا ناسته تاسو ګنوم ته ننباسي
Comment[pt]=Esta sessão usa o GNOME
Comment[pt_BR]=Essa sessão o leva ao GNOME
Comment[ro]=Această sesiune vă va autentifica în GNOME
Comment[ru]=Этот сеанс позволяет вам войти в GNOME
Comment[sk]=Táto relácia vás prihlási do GNOME
Comment[sl]=Seja omogoča prijavo v namizje GNOME.
Comment[sr]=Ова сесија вас пријављује у Гном
Comment[sr@latin]=Ova sesija vas prijavljuje u Gnom
Comment[sv]=Denna session loggar in dig i GNOME
Comment[ta]=இந்த அமர்வு க்நோம் இல் உங்களை நுழைக்கும் 
Comment[te]=ఈ సెషన్ గ్నోమ్*లోనికి లాగ్ చేస్తుంది
Comment[tg]=Ин ҷаласа шуморо ба GNOME ворид мекунад
Comment[th]=วาระนี้จะเข้าสู่ GNOME
Comment[tr]=Bu oturum GNOME’a girmenizi sağlar
Comment[ug]=بۇ ئەڭگىمە سىزنى گىنومغا ئەكىرىدۇ.
Comment[uk]=Це — сеанс входу в GNOME
Comment[uz]=Ushbu seans GNOME'ga kirishingizni taʼminlaydi
Comment[uz@cyrillic]=Ушбу сеанс GNOME'га киришингизни таъминлайди
Comment[zh_CN]=此会话将让您登录到 GNOME
Comment[zh_HK]=這個作業階段讓你登入 GNOME
Comment[zh_TW]=這個工作階段讓您登入 GNOME
Comment=This session logs you into GNOME
Exec=/usr/bin/gnome-session
TryExec=/usr/bin/gnome-session
Type=Application
DesktopNames=GNOME
X-GDM-SessionRegisters=true

As you can see above, there are no instances of GNOME Classic (which are the entries I am trying to get rid of).

@1fallen writes:

So show us this:

$ apt policy gdm3

Ok it is time for me to come clean. I am not actually running Ubuntu. I am not even running another Linux distro with advanced package tool. I'm running Manjaro. I know you guys are going to kill me but please understand that the reason why I reached out here on the Ubuntu forums is that lightdm-gtk-greeter is a Xubuntu native project. See here: https://github.com/Xubuntu/lightdm-gtk-greeter

I was hoping that Ubuntu forum members might be able to lend their expertise to configuring lightdm which is a distro agnostic app which is maintained by Ubuntu-related developers.

[1fallen]

Ok it is time for me to come clean. I am not actually running Ubuntu. I am not even running another Linux distro with advanced package tool. I'm running Manjaro. I know you guys are going to kill me but please understand that the reason why I reached out here on the Ubuntu forums is that lightdm-gtk-greeter is a Xubuntu native project. See here: https://github.com/Xubuntu/lightdm-gtk-greeter

I was hoping that Ubuntu forum members might be able to lend their expertise to configuring lightdm which is a distro agnostic app which is maintained by Ubuntu-related developers.

That just was a good thing to know beforehand, and I just don't know Manjaro, I know Arch very well though and it still uses the same recommends or suggestions Holgre and I have used ie:

cd /usr/share/xsessions/ && ls

So you may have to head over to the Manjaro forum. (Something is different with LightDM on Manjaro)

[Holger_Gehrke]

Without reading the source to lightdm (and / or the greeter in use - probably lightdm-gtk-greeter) very closely, I can only assume that lightdm reads some additional desktop files beyond those in /usr/share/xsessions/. I'd try something like

find / -path /usr/share/applications -prune -o -path /usr/share/xsessions -prune -o -path $HOME/.local/share/applications -prune -o -iname '*.desktop'

This should find any .desktop files outside the three locations given (we know there are desktop files there and they are not the ones we are after). That will still give a lot of false hits, but if there are desktop files which are responsible for the sessions you see, they should be among the results. Might want to either pipe this into less or sent error output to /dev/null for the sake of readability ...

Holger