gdm-restart

Restart the GNOME Display Manager application

$ gdm-restart

gdm-restart

The gdm-restart command restarts the GNOME Display Manager (GDM), the default graphical login manager for GNOME-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Debian.

GDM handles user authentication and session startup on graphical displays. Running gdm-restart stops the current GDM service and launches a new instance, effectively terminating all active X11 or Wayland sessions and returning the system to the login screen. This is particularly useful for applying immediate changes to GDM configurations, such as custom themes, backgrounds, or settings in /etc/gdm/ or /etc/gdm3/, without requiring a full system reboot.

Unlike manual service restarts (e.g., systemctl restart gdm), gdm-restart is a wrapper script designed for graceful handling: it notifies running sessions, waits briefly for cleanup, and ensures the display server restarts cleanly. It supports both SysV init and systemd environments, making it distribution-agnostic.

Primarily used by administrators for maintenance, it requires root privileges and should only be executed when no critical work is ongoing, as it forces logouts.

Requires root privileges (use sudo).
Terminates all graphical user sessions abruptly.
Risk of unsaved data loss.
Not recommended on multi-user or remote systems.
May fail if GDM is not installed or active.

Restart GDM after config changes:
sudo gdm-restart

Part of gdm3 or gdm package. Install via apt install gdm3 (Debian/Ubuntu) or dnf install gdm (Fedora).

Introduced in GDM 3.8 (2013) by the GNOME project to standardize display manager restarts across init systems. Evolved with GDM 40+ to better support Wayland and systemd integration.

gdm(8), systemctl(1), service(8)