Lubuntu 25.04 change SDDM Theme

Support and Help
1

Hi there,

trying to replace the built in SDDM themes with something more appealing. So far I have not found any that works. I don’t want to install a full fledged KDE in the background only to have full SDDM theme support.

Are there any limitations that need to be considered by chosing a theme? Are there some packages required?

Looking for recommendations here.

Thanks a lot,
Dominik

2

There was just a discussion around the same topic a few days ago, perhaps you can get some ideas from it ?

3

I have seen that post, unfortunately not addressing my topic. That was only related to changing background for existing themes.

I would like to install a new theme but I didn’t find one that was working

1 Like
4

By chance are you using auto-login?
I’m sure you know that files in the /usr/share/sddm/themes directory. This is where SDDM looks for themes.

  1. Edit the SDDM configuration file located at /etc/sddm.conf to add or modify the Theme section. Set the Current option to the name of the theme you want to use.2
  2. Restart the SDDM service to apply the changes. You can do this by running the command sudo systemctl restart sddm .
    Themes can be found here: https://store.kde.org/browse?cat=101&ord=latest
5

You’ve found some, but they don’t work??? What did you find where and how did you try to install it?

6

found them e.g. here:
https://www.gnome-look.org/browse?cat=101&ord=top

or these:

copied them to usr/share/sddm/themes
and selected them in the SDDM configuration tool

I have tried to install additional modules:

sudo apt install qml-module-qtquick-layouts qml-module-qtquick-controls2 qml-module-qtquick-templates2 qml-module-qtgraphicaleffects

7

I’m using autologin but when logging out I’m directed to a grey login screen without any theming

8

Screenshots, please.

9

Try Disabling auto-login first, I’ve seen this work for others.
Mine just works with no fiddling about. No Auto Login on mine.

2025-04-21_12-09
2025-04-21_12-091539×946 39.5 KB

2025-04-21_13-11
2025-04-21_13-111550×967 81.3 KB

2025-04-21_13-13
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Also in checking my notes, I beleive @guiverc gave me this clue:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/sddm-greeter-qt6 /usr/bin/sddm-greeter


inxi -F|grep Desktop
  Desktop: LXQt v: 2.1.4 Distro: Lubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin)
10

There were qt5/qt6 issues for themes in 24.10 and some of them were fixed for 25.04.
For example, the greeter softlink is no longer needed for 25.04.
But the theme-preview inside sddm-conf still doesn’t work. This could be either because of sddm-conf or maybe that some themes are still using unsupported qt5 stuff.

The one tried was elarun which is still working
(sudo apt install sddm-theme-elarun) (but not in the preview).

11

That sounds like the best guess. I have no issues changing themes.
But i did carry over the sudo ln -s /usr/bin/sddm-greeter-qt6 /usr/bin/sddm-greeter
Some sddm themes in qt5 would not of course.

sddm
sddm1224×760 35 KB

12

The Elarun theme is the only one that is working beside the built in ones ( Maya, Lubuntu) Tried to install other ones via apt-install but they always want to install full fledged Plasma dependencies.

Is there a chance to identify other themes that work?

13

Yep it needs them to render properly on Lubuntu, and depending on the Theme.

Trial and error is all we have currently.

apt policy qml6-module-qtquick
qml6-module-qtquick:
  Installed: 6.8.3+dfsg-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 6.8.3+dfsg-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 6.8.3+dfsg-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu plucky/universe amd64 P>
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status


libquickcharts1/plucky,now 6.12.0-0ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libquickchartscontrols1/plucky,now 6.12.0-0ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]

gp3
gp31552×960 95.8 KB

Both of these are not in the repos, in fact none of my theme’s is from our Repos or PPA’s
gp4