Documentation › Sessions and login

The login screen

The greeter: logging in, choosing a session, restarting and shutting down

The login screen is Aurora Greeter, a GTK 4 app that runs on greetd, the login manager. It shows the Aurora logo and wordmark, the time and date over the current wallpaper, and the users of the computer.

#Logging in

1. Click your name, or choose Other… and type a user name.
2. Type your password and press Enter or Log In.

A wrong password shows Wrong password. Please try again. The login password also unlocks your keyring, where apps keep saved passwords (Wi-Fi, browsers, Git).

#Choosing a session

When more than one session is installed, a menu at the bottom of the login screen lists them. Aurora installs two:

The choice is remembered. See Desktop sessions for the differences.

#Restart and shut down

Restart and Power Off are in the corner of the login screen.

#Automatic login

Chosen in the installer, or later in Settings → Users → Log in automatically. greetd then starts your session without asking for the password at boot. The keyring stays locked until an app needs it, and it asks for your password once.

#Under the hood

• greetd runs on virtual terminal 7 (/etc/greetd/config.toml).
• Its default session is /usr/libexec/aurora-greeter-launch, run as the system user _greetd: it reads the system language and keyboard (/etc/default/locale, /etc/default/keyboard) and starts the greeter in a locked-down labwc. If the graphical greeter cannot start, greetd's text greeter agreety takes over.
• After a successful login greetd runs the chosen session's command: aurora-session wayfire or aurora-session labwc (see What happens when you log in).