gdm-stop

Stop the GNOME Display Manager application

$ gdm-stop

gdm-stop (conceptual/legacy)

Note: For modern systems, use sudo systemctl stop gdm

The gdm-stop command, or more accurately the action of stopping the GNOME Display Manager (GDM), is used to terminate the GDM service. GDM is the default display manager for the GNOME desktop environment, responsible for displaying the graphical login screen, managing user sessions, and starting the graphical environment upon user login.

Historically, this might have been achieved through specific init scripts like /etc/init.d/gdm stop. In modern Linux distributions that use systemd, the preferred and most common method to stop GDM is by using the command sudo systemctl stop gdm. Stopping GDM will typically log out any active graphical users and return the system to a state where the display manager needs to be restarted (e.g., sudo systemctl start gdm) to allow graphical logins again. It is often performed during system maintenance or troubleshooting of the graphical environment.

Stopping the GDM service will immediately terminate all active graphical user sessions, leading to a loss of unsaved work for users logged into the GNOME desktop.

On modern Linux systems utilizing systemd, the direct gdm-stop command is generally not available as a standalone executable. Users should instead use sudo systemctl stop gdm to manage the GDM service.

Stopping GDM forcibly terminates all active graphical sessions managed by GDM. This means any user logged into a graphical desktop will be logged out, and any unsaved work in graphical applications will be lost.

GDM is managed as a system service. Its state (running, stopped, enabled, disabled) is controlled by the init system, typically systemd, ensuring it starts automatically at boot if enabled and can be managed by administrators.

The concept of stopping the GDM service has evolved significantly with changes in Linux init systems. In older distributions using SysVinit or Upstart, stopping GDM involved executing specific scripts (e.g., /etc/init.d/gdm stop). With the widespread adoption of systemd as the standard init system, the management of services like GDM shifted to the systemctl command. While a direct gdm-stop command might have existed as a wrapper or a specific script in some contexts, its primary function has been absorbed by the more generic and powerful systemctl utility for service management.

systemctl(1), gdm(8), gdm-restart(1), gdm-reload(1)