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In 11.10 I used 'gdmflexiserver -xnest' to switch users without logging out however I think gdm has now been completely removed.

I'm trying to bind a keyboard shortcut to do the equivalent of 'Me Menu>Switch User Account...'.

How can I invoke a user switch in 12.04?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
21

gdmflexiserver as a legacy option to provide the greeter switcher service during the transition between GDM and LightDM.

This has now been dropped from 12.04.

The replacement command is:

dm-tool switch-to-greeter

Other useful dm-tool options (dm-tool --help):

enter image description here

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7
  • unlike the me menu dm-tool swich-to-greeter doesn't lock session you just left.
    – ijk
    Mar 17, 2012 at 16:24
  • On ubuntu 16.04 dm-tool swich-to-greeter does lock session you just left.
    – Stéphane Gourichon
    Aug 13, 2016 at 17:26
  • If like us you want to switch without typing password every time, consider this: askubuntu.com/questions/811953/…
    – Stéphane Gourichon
    Aug 15, 2016 at 21:39
  • it doesn't log out the session you just left :P
    – Frank N
    Oct 30, 2016 at 3:41
  • Does not work in 17.10 anymore. Maybe because ubuntu now uses GDM?
    – Matmarbon
    Oct 27, 2017 at 17:17
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You can have several users logged in at the same time and switch between them with alt+ctrl+F1-8. That doesn't allow you to have another x server in a window. By the way; GDM has not been removed. It's just not used by default. You can easily install it: http://apt.ubuntu.com/p/gdm.

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  • 1
    I really dont think that is what the user is asking here.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Mar 8, 2012 at 11:11
  • My fault, I updated the question to make it clearer what Im trying to achieve. I know GDM is still available but most of the functionality is being moved to lightDM. In 11.10, the GDM command 'gdmflexiserver -xnest' would start another x server using the LightDM protocol allowing a user to log in using the GUI. But now GDM is not installed by default so there must be a replacement command that does the same but is lightdm native.
    – edm
    Mar 8, 2012 at 11:17
  • You can use ctrl+alt+F7 and ctrl+alt+F8 to switch between two logged in users when they are already logged in.
    – Jo-Erlend Schinstad
    Mar 8, 2012 at 16:27

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