How to manage automatic login on Ubuntu Linux

For best practice purposes, users are required to authenticate before logging on to a Linux device. This helps in ensuring that sensitive and personal information on the device is safe. But, if you are sure that the Linux system is placed in a secure environment and can be adequately monitored, then you can enable automatic login for your Linux device. Please see Implementation of Kiosk Mode using Local Settings: Single App Kiosk Setup, how to start an application automatically on macOS, and how to disable automatic screen lock on Ubuntu Desktop with the GUI and dconf Editor.

It is also worth noting that, whenever you try to install Ubuntu Linux, you are provided with the option to choose whether or not you want to use a password to log in to the device.

Here are some articles relating to this topic. How to disable or enable automatic login from the sign-in screen in Windows, how to enable or disable automatic login on macOS, how to prevent MacBook from automatically Logging out,

Embarking on disabling the sign-in screen is not a good idea as your device can be compromised.

You can only do this if you are the only user of your PC and you have restricted access to your PC. That being said, it is recommended you protect your PC with a Password, PIN, or biometric authentication. Do this only if you have restriction to the area where your Ubuntu device is located. See how to disable automatic screen lock on Ubuntu Desktop with the GUI and dconf Editor.

For Ubuntu 20:10

From the system menu, click on settings or hit the Apps button and click search for users as shown below.

Alternatively, you could use the “Activities” button and search for users. Which ever step you embark on, the Settings window will be displayed.

This will open up the Users settings window as shown below. Notice that the option to disable automatic logon is grayed out.

To do this, you will have to click on the “Unlock” button as shown below in order to change the user settings.

Next, you will receive a prompt to enter your password to apply the changes. Without entering the password, you will not be able to enable the automatic logon.

Upon authentication, you should be able to switch on the Automatic login as shown below. That is all that is needed to enable automatic login in Ubuntu 20:10

To disable automatic login in Ubuntu 20:10, kindly repeat the process and switch the Ubuntu Automatic Login off.

For Ubuntu 18:04

To enable automatic login for this version of Linux, click on the “Activities” button and search for the user or from the system menu as well.

For me, I will click on the All Settings button tied to the dock as shown in the images below. This will open the “All Settings” window and click on the Details button

This will open the Details window. Please click on the Users menu as shown below. As you can see, the button to switch the automatic login on is grayed out.

To enable this, you will have to click on the Unlock button as shown below.

Next, you will receive a prompt to enter your password in order to apply the changes. Enter your password and click on Authenticate.

Now you should be able to switch the automatic login button on as shown below. If you ever want to disable the automatic login, kindly repeat the entire process and switch to the button off.

For Ubuntu 16:04

To enable automatic login for this version of Linux, click on the “Activities” button and search for the user as shown in the images below.

This will open the “All Settings” window. Click on User accounts.

This will open the User Accounts window.. To enable the automatic login, you will have to click on the “Unlock” button.

Next, you will receive a prompt to enter your password in order to authenticate.

Now you should be able to switch the automatic login button on as shown below. If you ever want to disable the automatic login, kindly repeat the entire process and switch the button off.

Via the command line

You will need to perform this task with superuser privileges. To enable or disable the automatic login in Ubuntu Linux via the command line, please perform the following operations below. Search for and launch the Terminal through the Application Launcher or use the Super/Windows key.

I will be using Vim but Nano is readily available to do. If you are you use vim, ensure it is installed previously.

Using the following command below, edit the daemon.conf file in any of your favorite editors through the following command.

$ sudo vim /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

In the daemon.conf file opened, you will have to uncomment some selected lines out by removing the pound symbol # at the beginning of each line.

This will ensure the interpreter ignores the commented lines when reading through a configuration file.

Note: Ensure to replace "user1" with your name or the desired username.

Disable Automatic Login via the Command-Line

To disable automatic login on Ubuntu Linux for the user, simply edit the “custom.conf” again. Add the pound symbol # back.

This means that in our file, the automatic login feature for “christian” or if you decide to change it back to user1 has been disabled.

AutomaticLoginEnable=true
Automatic Login=user1

Once ready, reboot your system to confirm the settings using the command below.

$ sudo reboot

I hope you found this blog on How to enable and Disable automatic login on Ubuntu Linux post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.