slim(1)

💖 slim(1) — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, sit down, we're talking about slim — and yes that's the manual page name right there, slim(1), so you know it's the real deal. this is the Simple LogIn Manager and she is serving.

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✨ NAME ✨

slim — Simple LogIn Manager 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

slim [options] [<arguments>]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so SLiM is a lightweight login manager for X11, and what she does is let you initialize a graphical session by entering your username and password on a login screen. that's it, that's the whole gig ✨

she's desktop-agnostic, which means — and I need you to hear me on this — she should work with any session style, as long as you configure her properly. no cap. she does not play favorites between desktop environments. icon behavior fr fr 💅

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -c /path/to/config — pick a non-standard config file instead of the usual /etc/slim.conf. living your own truth, love that for you 💖
• -d — run as a daemon 👑
• -n — do NOT run as a daemon. the anti--d. she contains multitudes 🫶
• -s — be systemd compatible by disabling consolekit support. heads up bestie: this option does nothing if consolekit support hasn't been built in. so if nothing happens, that's not a bug, that's just the build 🫠
• -p /path/to/theme — display a preview of the theme 🌈 an already running X11 session is required for theme preview, so don't come crying to me if there's no X around, it's literally in the rules
• -w <www>x<hhh> — set the size of the window used for theme preview. ⚠️ this option is only valid after a -p option — it's giving "must be paired", it does not fly solo
• -h — display a brief help message 🥰
• -v — display version information ⭐

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

okay here's how the girlies actually use her:

slim -d

run slim in daemon mode 😌

slim -p /usr/share/slim/themes/default -w 800x600

preview of the default theme at low resolution. iconic. no notes 💖

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🧚 STARTING SLIM AT BOOT 🧚

please bestie, go read the documentation of your Operating System to make slim automatically startup after the system boots. I cannot stress this enough — the method is very different between SysV, OpenRC, runit and systemd init processes. like, four completely different vibes. check yours first 💀

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

global configuration lives in the /etc/slim.conf file 💾

see the comments inside the file for a detailed explanation of the options. yes, the comments. read them. they're there for you. they're basically the girl explaining everything in the group chat 🌸

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💜 USAGE AND SPECIAL USERNAMES 💜

when started, slim will show a login panel; enter the username and password of the user you want to login as. simple as that ✨

now for the special usernames — these are the secret menu items, iykyk:

• console — open an xterm login console. no password needed 🖥️
• exit — quit slim. no password needed. but see the note in BUGS below, seriously, go look 👀
• halt — shutdown the machine 🔌
• reboot — reboot the machine 🔄
• suspend — power-suspend the machine 😴

see the configuration file for customizing the above commands 📝

the 'halt' and 'reboot' commands need the root password, and hence may not work on systems where root login is disabled. so if you're on a system with root login off, those two are lowkey not happening for you 😭

Shortcuts — the hotkeys, the keyboard slay ⌨️:

• F11 — executes a custom command (by default takes a screenshot) 📸
• F1 — choose session type from session list 🗂️

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💀 BUGS 💀

okay girlies, the tea ☕:

• when run as a daemon from OpenRC (and possibly other init systems), causing SLiM to quit can sometimes result in a blank screen and unresponsive computer. 😭 and yes — this includes when using the "exit" special username. so that "no password needed" exit? sometimes it takes the whole screen with it. not okay, we know, we're working on it
• SLiM does not handle expired passwords and treats them as expired accounts. that's just how she is right now 🫠
• probably still a few more but I'm working on them 🫶

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

• Simone Rota <sip@varlock.com>
• Johannes Winkelmann <jw@tks6.net>
• Nobuhiro Iwamatsu <iwamatsu@nigauri.org>
• Rob Pearce <slim@flitspace.org.uk>

the whole squad built her, give them their flowers 💐

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• slimlock(1)
• see the online documentation at the SLiM web site for further information on themes, FAQs, etc. 📚

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and log in gorgeously ✨ and just so you know — this little masterpiece is from January 14, 2023, and it lives under slim(1) in your friendly neighborhood man pages 🎀💖🦋