Fedora 17 auto login does not work

The Fedora 17 auto login feature does not work through the GUI in KDE:

System Settings -> Login Screen -> Convenience -> Enable Auto Login.

It accepts the changes, but when I reboot, I am still prompted to select a username and type a password. The GUI seems to be broken. Screenshot:

enter image description here

So if this GUI bit doesn't work, how can I enable autologin on fedora 17?

Eric Leschinski

Posted 2012-07-27T22:45:59.753

Reputation: 5 303

Answers

Adding "Automatic Login" feature in Fedora 17.

The automatic login feature will automatically login as a specific user each time you boot the computer. Use this feature only on a single user machine as it will not provide you with an option to login as another user.

Note: Fedora 13 does not automatically select Auto-Login. However, if manually selected at GDM automatic login will commence.

Note: GDM will not allow you to auto-login as root! You must choose a normal user for this feature.

Note: If you intend to use the Timed Login feature you cannot use Automatic Login. You must choose one or the other.

Here are the steps:

Edit the following file: /etc/gdm/custom.conf
Make a backup copy of the custom.conf as custom.conf.bak So you can rollback should something go wrong.

You should see rows that look like this:

[daemon]
[security]
[xdmcp]
[greeter]
[chooser]
[debug]

Enter the following lines under the [daemon] line, replace 'el' with your username you want to login with:
```
[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=el
```
Save and exit. Reboot your computer and should auto log in as your specified user.

Source: Custom GDM Configuration For Auto And Timed Login

Eric Leschinski

Posted 2012-07-27T22:45:59.753

Reputation: 5 303

For KDE, in /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc set AutoLoginEnable and AutoLoginUser.

This works in a Fedora 16.

Bill S

Posted 2012-07-27T22:45:59.753

Reputation: 41

This particular setting requires root access to change. Try logging in as root and changing the setting.

Michael Hampton

Posted 2012-07-27T22:45:59.753

Reputation: 11 744

The window prompts user for the root password when I choose the "apply" button. So it knows I need root access to make a change. I was never able to get it to work, but I found the work around described below by editing custom.conf. – Eric Leschinski – 2012-07-27T23:01:13.480

You could just go to System Settings -> User Accounts -> Select your user and click Auto Login

Derek

Posted 2012-07-27T22:45:59.753

Reputation: 9

1Have you tried it yourself? If you use KDE, that doesn't work. – Eric Leschinski – 2012-11-12T14:10:33.820