Two KDE developers, David Edmundson and Oliver Bird, have recently presented a new project in the KDE developers’ mailing list. The project involves creating a new display manager called Plasma Login Manager. This initiative to create a new display manager comes as a response to the architectural issues found in the current SDDM display manager, which replaced KDM with the release of Plasma 5.
The developers have highlighted GDM (gnome display Manager) as the gold standard when it comes to creating a new display manager. GDM is closely integrated with GNOME Shell and MUTTER technologies, providing a level of integration with GNOME that SDDM cannot match. The goal with Plasma Login Manager is to achieve a similar level of integration with the KDE Plasma desktop and the composite server Kwin.
The shortcomings of SDDM became apparent as KDE developers sought a closer integration with the entry manager than what SDDM could offer. SDDM’s architecture was not conducive to integrating features such as volume, brightness, energy consumption, and network connections available in KDE Plasma. The duplication of functionality between SDDM and KDE further complicated the integration efforts.
A prototype of the new multiprocess input manager for Plasma Login Manager has been developed, utilizing a slimmed-down version of SDDM and the startup mechanism used to launch KDE Plasma desktop sessions. The design of the entrance screen closely resembles the existing KDE screen lock, with unified settings for a seamless user experience. The developers opted not to use QML for customizing the design, instead focusing on existing plugins for wallpaper, color schemes, and Plasma themes.
While Plasma Login Manager has not yet reached the quality level required for stable release within the KDE Plasma branch, it is available for testing. The backend is based on SDDM, while the new frontend and configurator module (KCM) are still being developed in separate repositories with plans to integrate them in the future. The capabilities of Plasma Login Manager are nearly on par with the old entry manager.
Some of the features that are planned to be implemented in Plasma Login Manager, which are currently missing in SDDM, include high-quality support for configurations with multiple monitors, high pixel density, and HDR, as well as keyboard switching.