How to restart GDM3 with autologin on 18.04 and 19.04

18.04 gdm auto-login 19.04

11,211

Solution 1

Had the same issue, I solved it by enabling 'Timed Login' in the /etc/gdm3/custom.conf file. Mine looks like:

# GDM configuration storage
#
# See /usr/share/gdm/gdm.schemas for a list of available options.

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=username

# Uncoment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
#WaylandEnable=false

# Enabling automatic login

# Enabling timed login
TimedLoginEnable = true
TimedLogin = username
TimedLoginDelay = 10

[security]

[xdmcp]

[chooser]

[debug]
# Uncomment the line below to turn on debugging
# More verbose logs
# Additionally lets the X server dump core if it crashes
#Enable=true

Solution 2

Slight change to Celly's answer above. The default, or OOB, custom.conf file has the AutomaticLoginEnable and AutomaticLogin parameters commented out. I left those parameters commented out and uncommented/set TimedLoginEnable, TimedLogin, and TimedLoginDelay. It still works. Thank-you Celly!

Solution 3

This seems to be fixed on Ubuntu 20.04 : gdm3 service restart will result in successful autologin.

11,211

Lionep

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Lionep over 1 year
On Ubuntu 16.04 with lightdm, and an autologin account, I can restart the graphical session with command :
```
sudo service lightdm restart
```
The account logs in automatically.

On Ubuntu 18.04 (and also on 19.04), the same autologin account is setup, but the command :
```
sudo service gdm3 restart
```
fails to autologin, and bring the display to the login page.

In gdm logs, I can find
```
systemd[1]: gdm.service: Succeeded.
systemd[1]: Stopped GNOME Display Manager.
systemd[1]: Starting GNOME Display Manager...
systemd[1]: Started GNOME Display Manager.
gdm-autologin][4091]: gkr-pam: no password is available for user
gdm-autologin][4091]: pam_unix(gdm-autologin:session): session opened for user screen by (uid=0)
gdm-autologin][4091]: gkr-pam: couldn't unlock the login keyring.
```
How to properly restart the user session, with autologin user logged in on ubuntu 18.04 ?
- Charles Green about 5 years
  
  Could you add the output of journalctl -xn?
- Lionep almost 5 years
  
  Here are the logs of this command : pastebin.com/raw/FvNMN7ek
- Charles Green almost 5 years
  
  Possible duplicate of Ubuntu 17.10 GDM Auto-Login not working
- Lionep almost 5 years
  
  No, autologin works at boot, it's just not autologin when gdm3 is restarted
- Charles Green almost 5 years
  
  I'll retract that vote then!
cyqsimon almost 3 years

On my RPi-4 it's /etc/gdm3/daemon.conf, FYI.