How to configure automatic login in SUSE

openSUSE sets the option to log in the default user automatically without requiring a password during installation.

While this is convenient for personal systems, it is not recommended for systems that require security. Anyone with physical access to the system can boot it up and access the default user's account, which normally has administrative privileges.

You can turn automatic login on or off in openSUSE and SLES. You can do this from the graphical YaST tool and the command line.

1. Launch YaST from the launcher.
2. Navigate to Security and Users → User and Group Management.
3. Click on Expert Options → Login Settings on the lower right of the window.
4. Check or uncheck the Auto login box to enable or disable automatic login and click OK.
5. Click OK again in the main window.
6. Restart the system for the changes to take effect.

1. Open Terminal application.
2. Edit /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager using your preferred text editor.

   > sudo nano /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager

3. Search for DISPLAYMANAGER_AUTOLOGIN directive.

   ## Type: string
   ## Default:
   #
   # Define the user whom should get logged in without request. If string
   # is empty, display standard login dialog.
   #
   DISPLAYMANAGER_AUTOLOGIN="user"

4. Enter a username in the directive to enable autologin or remove existing username to disable autologin.

   DISPLAYMANAGER_AUTOLOGIN=""

5. Save and exit the text editor.
6. Restart the system for the changes to take effect.