KDE auto login to GUI Plasma Desktop

The purpose of this tutorial is to enable auto login on the KDE Plasma desktop environment in a Linux system. If you are using KDE and getting tired of needing to provide your password every time your computer boots up, or goes back to the lock screen, then enabling auto login will save you some time and frustration.

Being presented with a password prompt when your computer first boots up is a security feature. Keep this in mind before you decide to disable it. In reality, this prompt does very little to protect your computer, and a knowledgeable attacker will be able to access your files through other means, unless the system are properly secured. Still, it is a good way to deter prying eyes in some situations.

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the step by step instructions to configure auto login for KDE Plasma. This can be done from either command line or GUI, and we will show the process for both methods.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to enable auto login in KDE Plasma via GUI
  • How to enable auto login in KDE Plasma via command line
KDE auto login to GUI Plasma Desktop
KDE auto login to GUI Plasma Desktop
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Any Linux system
Software KDE Plasma desktop environment
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to enable auto login in KDE Plasma step by step instructions




Auto login for KDE can be configured from both GUI and command line. Follow whichever set of instructions that you find most convenient below.

Enable auto login from GUI

  1. Start by opening up the application launcher and navigating to the System Settings menu.
    Opening System Settings menu on KDE
    Opening System Settings menu on KDE
  2. In the System Settings panel, click on the Startup and Shutdown tab in the left pane of the window.
    Click on the Startup and Shutdown option
    Click on the Startup and Shutdown option
  3. Next, ensure that the Login Screen (SDDM) tab is selected, and then click on the Advanced tab on the right side of the window.
    Click on the Advanced tab inside the Login Screen (SDDM) options
    Click on the Advanced tab inside the Login Screen (SDDM) options
  4. Within this screen, check the box for “Automatically log in” and then select the user that you with to configure automatic login for. When you are done, you can click the Apply button and close this window. Your changes will take effect immediately. If you want, you can reboot the system to make sure it worked.


Enable auto login from command line

  1. To configure auto login from the command line, start by opening the /etc/sddm.conf file in nano or your favorite text editor. Make sure you do this with root permissions.
    $ sudo nano /etc/sddm.conf
    

    Note that the file may not already exist, in which case we will be creating it.

  2. Within this file, copy and paste the following three lines, while replacing linuxconfig with the actual user name of the user that you wish to login to automatically.
    [Autologin]
    User=linuxconfig
    Session=plasma.desktop
    
    Enabling auto login inside of the SDDM configuration file
    Enabling auto login inside of the SDDM configuration file
  3. After you have added these changes to the file, you can exit and save your changes. The settings will take effect immediately. If you want, you can reboot the system to make sure it worked.

That’s all there is to it. In the future, you will not be forced to provide a password at the lock screen when you boot up your computer. You can always revert these changes by following the same instructions, except unchecking the box for the GUI method or deleting the three lines if using the command line method.

Closing Thoughts




In this tutorial, we saw how to configure auto login for the KDE Plasma desktop environment in Linux. This setting is configurable from both command line and GUI, and is simply a matter of convenience for the user. Some users wish to sacrifice the little bit of extra security so that they do not need to type their password every time the computer boots back up. The choice is yours.



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