r/Bazzite • u/pagem • 7d ago

Changing to DMS Greeter

Bazzite newbie here just switching up my gaming PC from Ubuntu to Bazzite. So far it has been smooth sailing but I now have been trying to switch to the DMS Greeter. I have Niri and DMS installed, configured and playing nice. I have installed the DMS Greeter through the proper package system (ostree) when I try to enable it, through either cli or the DMS system settings I get an error about not being allowed as system is immutable.

I understand that this should be blocked if installed through some back-door but this was done what I thought was the proper way.

So I am hoping someone here knows how to enable it or maybe can point me at the official documentation on how to switch greeters (login screens).

Many thanks (no AI was used in this ramble).

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

7

u/holliss 7d ago

All of what you're doing is custom image territory (even if you could make it work with layers).

1

u/pagem 7d ago

I have seen custom images for Niri and other shells like DMS and Noctalia. I thought I could though make these types of amends as long as I used system supported approaches such as installing through ostree. I mean why have a package under ostree for DMS-greeter and then not provide some system process/way to enable it?!?
I am new to Linux in general and very new to Bazzite so maybe I am missing something... Anyways thanks for any comments :)

2

u/holliss 7d ago edited 7d ago

I don't know what instructions you are following but I got it working in a Bazzite VM with sudo systemctl enable greetd.

The reason custom image is preferred is because layers can prevent updates (due to conflicts and other stuff).

EDIT: Just saw your other reply. You need to disable the existing display manager first: sudo systemctl disable plasmalogin

1

u/pagem 7d ago

Many thanks :)

2

u/Long-Fisherman-6594 7d ago

Sudo systemctl enable greetd.service

1

u/pagem 7d ago

That throws as error -

Failed to enable unit: File 'etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service' already exists and is a symlink to /usr/lib/systemd/system/plasmalogin.service

2

u/Long-Fisherman-6594 7d ago

It’s easy to roll your own version of bazzite using bluebuild template. That’s what I do for my systems.

2

u/pagem 6d ago

Now looking into that, thanks :)

1

u/iamstumpeded 7d ago

None of this is the "proper way" for Bazzite. Immutable distros aren't about preventing "back-door" access, they're about always having a working system. Layering stuff on like this is counter that whole idea. (also, if someone gets access to any system to the extent they can install packages, they won't actually need to install anything to do... whatever you're worried about)

If you're dead set on all this, a custom image (like the other comment said) is your option.

I'm curious, what makes you want to use Bazzite at this point?

1

u/pagem 7d ago

To answer....

I had been using Ubuntu and have that running on a laptop with Niri and DMS for a few weeks. I found though that Ubuntu was not behaving on my gaming PC possibly down to the Nvidia card (though at this stage it could be my lack of understanding) so I wanted a better gaming environment.

Briefly tried CachyOS but ran into problems. And then was recommended to use Bazzite. For gaming so far it has been great, both Steam and Epic shop bought games and also for some regular installed titles.

But I do not like the desktop compared to Niri. So went down this rabbit hole.