How To Enable Automatic Login In Fedora

If you’re running Fedora on a personal device and want to skip the login screen every time you boot up, enabling automatic login is quick and simple. This guide shows you how to do it safely using either the GNOME GUI or by editing system files directly.

⚠️ Note: Automatic login is not recommended on shared or public machines, as it bypasses user authentication.

Method 1: Enable Automatic Login via GNOME Settings (GUI)

If you’re using the default GNOME desktop environment, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings from the Activities menu
2. Go to Users
3. Click the Unlock button in the top-right corner and enter your password
4. Toggle Automatic Login to ON

That’s it — your user will be logged in automatically on startup.

Method 2: Enable Automatic Login via GDM Configuration (Manual)

If you prefer doing it through the terminal or need more control:

Step 1: Find Your Username

Run:

whoami

Step 2: Edit the GDM Config File

Open the custom GDM config file using a text editor with sudo:

sudo nano /etc/gdm/custom.conf

Uncomment and edit these lines:

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=True
AutomaticLogin=yourusername

Replace yourusername with your actual Fedora username.

Step 3: Save and Reboot

Press Ctrl+O to save and Ctrl+X to exit. Then reboot:

sudo reboot

Fedora should now log in automatically to your user account.

Optional: Enable Autologin via systemd (Advanced)

For setups where GDM isn’t used (like minimal installs), you can configure autologin through systemd getty:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf

Add the following:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin yourusername --noclear %I $TERM

Reload systemd and reboot:

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo reboot

Wrapping Up

Automatic login is useful when convenience matters more than security — like on a home desktop or kiosk. Just remember, anyone with physical access to the machine can access your user session.

If you ever want to disable it, just reverse the changes in your config files or toggle it off in GNOME settings.