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How do I install GDM and any other necessary packages for it to run on the Raspbian image?

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Note that Gnome and GDM may require more memory than you have on the Pi. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jul 29 '12 at 21:16

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Assuming you just want to install GDM, and not an actual window manager, just run.

$ sudo apt-get install gdm

This would be strange though as GDM is a display manager. A display manager only provides the equivalent of a login prompt. In order to actually use your desktop you would need to install a window manager, such as GNOME or Xfce.

So, just in case you would like to also install a window manager then you need to do the following.

  1. First, you need to make sure you have tasksel and aptitude. You can install these on Debian-derived systems via apt-get.

    $ sudo apt-get install aptitude tasksel

  2. Now you need to install the GNOME task via tasksel.

    $ sudo tasksel install gnome-desktop --new-install

References

  1. Gnome - Debian Wiki
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You can use Xfce alongside GDM. – Alex Chamberlain Jul 29 '12 at 14:35
Are you saying you can't install gnome-desktop using apt-get? Really!?! – Alex Chamberlain Jul 29 '12 at 14:37
@AlexChamberlain I don't have a Pi so I can't test if you can use apt-get or not. So I'm just going with what the Wiki says. – Bryan Dunsmore♦ Jul 29 '12 at 15:04
Actually, I tried both apt-get, and tasksel, and while tasksel worked, it took 3 tries, and gnome3 won't load due to resource restrictions. I guess this wasn't the best idea I've had. Apt-get did not work, although I don't know if it's a limitation of the Gnome3 desktop, or if it is a resource limitation as well. – zenbike Jul 29 '12 at 16:55
up vote 7 down vote

The Pi doesn't have very powerful hardware. GDM will have heaps of Gnome dependencies. It might be better to look for a lighter weight login manager. SLIM might be a good choice (I think Raspbian is using it). Otherwise LightDM is what Ubuntu uses.

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+1 Slim is a much better solution. – Jivings♦ Jul 29 '12 at 8:20
I can understand that. My main point is to get a login manager installed before the GUI. LightDM is what is currently installed, but when I set the GUI to boot automatically, I lose the login password. There does not appear to be a config setting in lightdm.conf to separate the 2. If I comment out the auto login, then I go back to a console boot, although it requires a password. It was suggested that I look at GDM in the comments of my last question. Not sure whether it will be the right path, though. – zenbike Jul 29 '12 at 14:16
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While this is better information, the answer from @BryanDunsmore answers the question I asked, so I will choose that answer. – zenbike Jul 29 '12 at 16:59
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For what it's worth, SLIM works very well, and after installation, I have a GUI auto boot, which still requires a user login. I am still interested in how to get LightDM to do that, but so far, haven't been able. – zenbike Jul 30 '12 at 14:57

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