[Quick Tip] Hide User List from Ubuntu 19.10 Login Screen

This tutorial is going to show you how to remove the user list from the default GDM login screen in Ubuntu 19.10.

When user list is disabled, you need to type a user name and password to log in.

There is a gsettings key ‘org.gnome.login-screen.disable-user-list‘ to handle this functionality. It is however not working in my case even setting with gdm user privilege in Ubuntu 19.10.

1. Create a gdm profile:

Open terminal from application menu (or press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard). When it opens, run command:

sudo gedit /etc/dconf/profile/gdm

Type user password when it prompts and hit Enter. The command will create and open a file via Gedit text editor.

When the file opens, paste following lines and save it.

user-db:user
system-db:gdm
file-db:/usr/share/gdm/greeter-dconf-defaults

2. Write system-wide rules to disable user list

First create gdm.d folder under /etc/dconf/db directory by running command in terminal:

sudo mkdir /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d

Then run command to create and edit the key file:

sudo gedit /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/00-login-screen

When the file opens, write following lines and save it.

[org/gnome/login-screen]
# Disable user list from login screen
disable-user-list=true

3. Finally update the system databases:

Finally apply changes by running command in terminal:

sudo dconf update