Kubuntu and KDE 4 User Auto Login
Here’s a quick how to on setting user x to auto login under KDE 4. You may want to do this if it’s your machine at home, or you really have no security reason to have a login screen.
If you didn’t set it at the installation screens you can easily set it up in systemsettings with the Login Manager module.
To do this first open your systemsettings:
You can do that using your kde launcher, or using the command line interface and typing:
From here you will go to the advanced tabs and click on “Login Manager” (as you see below)
Enter in your password on the prompt
Once you launch the Login Manager Module, you’ll click on the “Convenience” tab. Right under the big red Attention Please Read you’ll see the “Enable Auto-Login” checkbox. After checking the Enable Auto-Login checkbox, you’ll use the drop down menu to pick the user you want to auto-login with. Here’s a before and after:


If you want to do it in the command line, you can add the following into /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc:
AutoLoginEnable=true
AutoLoginLocked=false
AutoLoginUser=bkevan
ClientLogFile=.xsession-errors

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

Thanks for that post.
Just to add that using the kdmrc file obviously offers many additional options not visible in the UI. That’s – as usual – a good idea to look at the corresponding doc (btw, the default kdmrc provides very useful comments).
One option that took me a while to discover (mainly because it was the default with Gnome) is AutoLoginAgain that – when set to true – makes the automatic login work whenever you logout and not only for the initial login.
Stephane.
Your article is the most impressive I have read on this subject in many years. It’s a refreshing twist. I like your point of view.
I’m glad I didn’t have to write this because it would be so confusing. You did a great job with this content and I agree.