#+title: How to Disable or Change the Display Manager on Void Linux
#+date:  2022-10-30

** Display Manager Services
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: display-manager-services
:END:
In order to change the
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_manager][display manager]] on
Void Linux - or any other Linux distro - you need to identify the
currently enabled display manager.

*** Disabling the Current Display Manager
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: disabling-the-current-display-manager
:END:
Void Linux only has one ISO available for download with a pre-built
display manager at the time of this post: the XFCE ISO. If you've
installed this version, the pre-assigned display manager is =lxdm=. If
you installed another display manager, replace =lxdm= in the following
command with the display manager you have installed.

To disable =lxdm=, simply remove the service symlink:

#+begin_src sh
sudo rm /var/service/lxdm
#+end_src

*** Enabling a New Display Manager
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: enabling-a-new-display-manager
:END:
If you want to enable a new display manager, you can do so after =lxdm=
is disabled. Make sure to replace =<new_display_manager>= with your new
DM, such as =gdm=, =xdm=, etc.

#+begin_src sh
sudo ln -s /etc/sv/<new_display_manager> /var/service
#+end_src

** Set Up =.xinitrc=
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: set-up-.xinitrc
:END:
Depending on your setup, you may need to create a few X files, such as
=~/.xinitrc=. For my personal set-up, I created this file to launch the
i3wm as my desktop.

#+begin_src sh
nano ~/.xinitrc
#+end_src

#+begin_src sh
#!/bin/sh

exec i3
#+end_src

If you run a desktop other than i3, simply replace =i3= with the shell
command that launches that desktop.

** Set Up Your Shell Profile
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: set-up-your-shell-profile
:END:
Finally, in order to automatically launch an X session upon login, you
will need to edit the =.bash_profile= (bash) or =.zprofile= (zsh) files
for your shell:

#+begin_src sh
nano ~/.zprofile
#+end_src

Add the following snippet to the end of the shell profile file. This
will execute the =startx= command upon login.

#+begin_src sh
if [ -z "${DISPLAY}" ] && [ "${XDG_VTNR}" -eq 1 ]; then
    exec startx
fi
#+end_src

Alternatively, you can ignore this step and simply choose to manually
execute =startx= upon login. This can be useful if you have issues with
your desktop or like to manually launch different desktops by choice.