Ever downloaded that really cool GDM login for Ubuntu from www.gnome-look.org to then see in terror that it causes you to be unable to login?  I have and I have set out to find a fix.  The fix is actually pretty easy.

Normally the GDM login themes you get tend to work very well, but sometimes they cause problems.  I am here to give you the fix.  Follow my procedure below.

• Boot into recovery mode by selecting a recovery kernel during the GRUB screen.  You can get to it by pressing ESC when you see the GRUB text come up on your screen.
• Select root when recovery mode asks you to what you want to fix
• Type the following command.  You do not need to enter sudo as you are root.
  
  nano /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
  
  
• You need to find the following section
  
  [daemon]
  # Automatic login, if true the first attached screen will automatically logged
  # in as user as set with AutomaticLogin key.
  AutomaticLoginEnable=false
  AutomaticLogin=
  
  
• Change false to true and enter your username after AutomaticLogin.  If your username is joe then the section will look like this:
  
  [daemon]
  # Automatic login, if true the first attached screen will automatically logged
  # in as user as set with AutomaticLogin key.
  AutomaticLoginEnable=true
  AutomaticLogin=joe
  
  
• This will bypass the GDM login process all together.  You will go directly to your desktop.  After that you can go back to your Login Window Preferences Manager and remove the offending GDM login theme.
  

I do recommend that once you fix the problem that you turn off automatic login as this is a security risk.  I hope this helped.

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