---
name: "gdm"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gdm"
version: "2.20.11-4"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gdm"
---

# gdm(1)

The GNOME Display Manager

## NAME

GDM - The GNOME Display Manager

## SYNOPSIS

**gdm \[options\]**\
 **gdmsetup \[options\]**

## DESCRIPTION

GDM is a replacement for XDM, the X Display Manager. Unlike its competitors (X3DM, KDM, WDM) GDM was written from scratch and does not contain any original XDM / X Consortium code.  GDM runs and manages the X servers for both local and remote logins (using XDMCP). See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/ for more details.

**gdm** is main executable. **gdmsetup** is a graphical tool for easily changing the most commonly used options.

For full documentation see the GNOME help browser under the **Applications / System Tools** section.

## OPTIONS

**gdm** and thus also **gdm** accept the following options:

- **-nodaemon**

  Do not fork into the background

- **--no-console**

  No console (local) servers to be run

- **--preserve-ld-vars**

  Preserve LD\_\* variables

- **--version**

  Print the GDM version

- **--help**

  Print simple description of accepted options

**gdmsetup** accepts all standard GNOME options.

## CONFIGURATION

Configuration is done either by running **gdmsetup** or by editting the /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf (usually, could also be /etc/gdm/gdm.conf) file.  The graphical tool does not support all the options possible so editting the configuration file is sometimes necessary.

## AUTHOR

**GDM** is being written and maintained by George (Jiri) Lebl \<jirka@5z.com\> based on the original codebase by Martin K. Peterson \<mkp@mkp.net\>.

## SEE ALSO

[**X**(7x)](/X/7x.md), [**xdm**(1)](/xdm/1.md), [**Xsecurity**(7x)](/Xsecurity/7x.md), [**Xserver**(1)](/Xserver/1.md),