Customizing login manager (SDDM) user icon

Documentation
1

The Problem

You’re sick and tired of the default user icon shown on login:

2021-01-01-151357_164x238_scrot

Background

Files

According to the SDDM GitHub:

SDDM reads user icon from either ~/.face.icon or FacesDir/username.face.icon

Additionally, man sddm.conf shows:

face files should be in
username.face.icon format

Folders

FacesDir should be set to the default /usr/share/sddm/faces. This can be confirmed with sddm --example-config | grep FacesDir.

FacesDir can be set by adding the following to /etc/sddm.conf:

[Theme]
FacesDir=/path/of/your/choosing

If the [Theme] stanza is already there, don’t create another one, but just add the FacesDir setting underneath it and before the next stanza.

The Solution

NOTE:

  • Transparency is likely a wise thing to have in your image.
  • The default theme makes use of an image sized 256x256 pixels.
  • Despite the .icon extension, the expected format is PNG, however any image format supported by Qt will work.

Your own user

Either create $HOME/.face.icon or $USER.face.icon in FacesDir.

  • Example: Assuming defaults, if your username is “user,” you would create /home/user/face.icon or /usr/share/sddm/faces/user.face.icon.

Default user icon

Change .face.icon in FacesDir .

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