about display managers...

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 15 Mar 2017 15:12:08 +0100, Christian Baer wrote:
> Because I like to play with different WM and desktops, I have installed
> Lumina, Xfce and Openbox - there might be more.  But there is the
> thing about the DM. On Opensuse Leap I can install KDM5 (which I
> actually do like) as a separate package (with very little KDE clutter).
> FreeBSD doesn't have it as a separate package, so I'd have to install
> KDE completely - which I am trying to avoid.

I think you only need kde-base and kde-libs for kdm to work.
Maybe there are KDE-less alternatives that you might want
to consider, for example SLIM or WDM?



> Strangely, GDM is there as
> a separate package, but since it wants to install the current Gnome3
> (~950MB), I won't go down that road either.

I also cannot recommend to do this. A recent update where
the Gnome part replaced Gnome 2 with Gnome 3 (and lead to
total unusefulness of the system) taught me not to deal
with Gnome anymore. Sadly, MATE (a Gnome 2 fork, partially
compatible) doesn't include a "gdm lookalike", that's why
I switched to SLIM - therefore my recommendation.



> XDM works but looks like
> it's stuck in the early 90s.

Well, xdm is very functional and customizable, but you
have to manually edit files to do so. It's secure (in a
way that it doesn't suggest user names, display passwords
or autologins users) and also _very_ fast. Additionally,
it's very lightweight on X dependencies.

Personally, I'm still using it on a daily basis, so it
must be good for something / someone. ;-)



> Can someone recommend a DM[2], that can be installed under FreeBSD
> (without having to install a complete desktop along side it), preferably
> one that looks modern attractive (customers will see this laptop) and
> makes changing between desktops nice and simple?

Again, I'd like to mention WDM (the WindowMaker display manager)
and especially SLIM, super easy to setup, fast, and looks good.




END OF LINE.	;-)


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...