KDE developer David Edmundson has published a lengthy blog post today outlining the long-standing challenges they have with the SDDM display manager, unimplemented features they want out of a log-in manager, and acknowledging GNOME’s GDM as a “gold standard” for display managers. While not yet an official project, they have begun working on a new KDE Login Manager for improving the situation.
Edmundson has been involved in SDDM development and in acknowledging its architectural issues has begun working on new Plasma Login / Plasma Login Manager projects in conjunction with fellow KDE developer Oliver Beard. Among the features ultimately desired out of a Plasma Login Manager include:
– Great out-of-box experience in multi-monitor and high DPI and HDR
– Keyboard layout switching
– Virtual keyboards
– Easy Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese (CJK) input
– Display and keyboard brightness control
– Full power management
– Screen readers for blind people (which then means volume control)
– Pairing trusted bluetooth devices
– Login to known Wi-Fi for remote LDAP
– Remote (VNC/RDP) support from startup
While not yet an official KDE project, the developers have begun working on this new Plasma Login / Plasma Login Manager code. Their new effort began by stripping down the SDDM code as their back-end and now taking it anew with a fresh design.
Their new effort currently lives within the Plasma Login and Plasma Login Manager Git repositories though eventually this code may be merged into a single repository. The code is working and they even have a screenshot to show, but it’s not yet ready for distro packaging or a state beyond developers wanting to explore:
Those wanting to learn more about this new KDE Plasma log-in manager effort can do so via David Edmundson’s blog.
