So, rechecked. It is definetly a bug! Please increase the buglevel.

Built a new kali-live and the bug still exists. This confirms, that the prior build itself was correctly built.

However, pöease note, that I am using XFCE as windowmanager and NOT gnome. I suppose, that is the reason, why this issue was not noticed before.

It would be nice if this ssue could be fixed.

Question beside: Is there a workaround I can use, until gdm3 is working corrctly so that the build is using lightdm again? I did not find the setting for the loginmanager in any config. What did I miss?

Thank you for your help.

Best

Hans.

When examining today, I discovered, that it works, if I do not add any packages using a mylist.list.chroot.
For testing purposes I removed that list and it worked again. However, I suppose, this is because package gdm3 is not installed then.

I attach mylist.list.chroot to this message. If you will take a look of it, there is an entry "kali-linux-everything" in this list (among others), so that maybe the other entries are no more needed.

Please note: This list worked before very well, so I am sure, this list is not the cause for the issue, but (as above already mentioned), the package "gdm3" will be installed when mylist is active.

Working on this issue, I ran into the idea of the possibility, to inhibit packages to be installed (maybe usefull in future, to avoid broken packages) - but I found no option for this, and, well, it was
just an idea coming in my mind.

I hope, this helps a little bit, fo rnow I am lost.

Thank you for reading.

Best regards

Hans

### packages we want to install
### kali packages to improve the system
# kali-linux-all
kali-linux-everything
kali-linux-large
kali-nethunter-full
kali-undercover
default-jre
task-laptop
task-german
task-german-desktop
console-data
isc-dhcp-client

# Special tools not in KALI-full
linux-exploit-suggester
forensics-full
kali-tools-802-11
kali-tools-bluetooth
kali-tools-crypto-stego
kali-tools-database
kali-tools-detect
kali-tools-exploitation
kali-tools-forensics
kali-tools-fuzzing
kali-tools-gpu
kali-tools-hardware
kali-tools-identify
kali-tools-information-gathering
kali-tools-passwords
kali-tools-post-exploitation
kali-tools-protect
kali-tools-recover
kali-tools-reporting
kali-tools-respond
kali-tools-reverse-engineering
kali-tools-rfid
kali-tools-sdr
kali-tools-sniffing-spoofing
kali-tools-social-engineering
kali-tools-voip
kali-tools-vulnerability
kali-tools-web
kali-tools-windows-resources
kali-tools-wireless
gvm
gvm-tools
parsero
shellnoob
teamsploit
veil
websploit
device-pharmer
libreoffice
arduino
eaphammer
fluxion
wifiphisher
wifipumpkin3
kde-config-gtk-style

### here you might want to add stuff for personal needs
adb
network-manager
network-manager-gnome
network-manager-strongswan
network-manager-l2tp-gnome
network-manager-openconnect-gnome
network-manager-openvpn-gnome
network-manager-pptp-gnome
network-manager-ssh
network-manager-ssh-gnome
network-manager-vpnc-gnome
firefox-esr
firefox-esr-l10n-de
claws-mail
claws-mail-plugins
claws-mail-extra-plugins
claws-mail-acpi-notifier
claws-mail-address-keeper
claws-mail-archiver-plugin
claws-mail-attach-remover
claws-mail-attach-warner
claws-mail-clamd-plugin
claws-mail-feeds-reader
claws-mail-fetchinfo-plugin
claws-mail-i18n
claws-mail-libravatar
claws-mail-mailmbox-plugin
claws-mail-multi-notifier
claws-mail-newmail-plugin
claws-mail-pdf-viewer
claws-mail-perl-filter
claws-mail-pgpinline
claws-mail-pgpmime
claws-mail-smime-plugin
claws-mail-spam-report
claws-mail-spamassassin
claws-mail-tnef-parser
claws-mail-vcalendar-plugin
armitage
lynx
mc
privoxy
etherape
alsa-utils
locales
remmina
remmina-common
remmina-plugin-exec
remmina-plugin-kiosk
remmina-plugin-kwallet
remmina-plugin-python
remmina-plugin-rdp
remmina-plugin-secret
remmina-plugin-spice
remmina-plugin-vnc
remmina-plugin-www
remmina-plugin-x2go
routersploit
aptitude
fancontrol
wodim
strace
wavemon
tmux
screen
cupp
kismet
kismet-plugins
gvm
gvm-tools
# spectools
clonezilla
maltego
maltego-teeth
lynis
aide
debsecan
debsums
fail2ban
tripwire
amap
bleachbit
ddrescueview
hardinfo2
synaptic
python3-impacket
e2fsprogs-l10n
filelight
# thunderbird
# thunderbird-l10n-de
# bluewho
# xdiskusage
# nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver
# apt-listbugs
# memtest86+


### packages from airgeddon
airgeddon
dsniff
beef-xss
asleap

# needed packages for airgeddon
xterm
sslstrip
bettercap
ccze
dnsmasq
hcxdumptool
mdk4
lighttpd
hcxtools
hostapd-wpe

### in case you want use airgeddon script
### hamster and ferret are already in the repo
hostapd
ipcalc
isc-dhcp-server


### Virtualisierung 
virtualbox
# virtualbox-ext-pack
virtualbox-guest-utils
virtualbox-guest-additions-iso
virtualbox-guest-x11
virtualbox-dkms
virt-manager
virt-p2v
vmdb2
aqemu
qemu-system

### EEEPC specials only i386
# eeepc-acpi-scripts


### this is for skype only. For version 4.3 and higher uncomment pulseaudio
### for my patched version 4.2.0.11-2 leave pulseaudio commented out.
# pulseaudio
# pavucontrol

### special purposes
apt-cacher-ng
live-build
cdebootstrap
bettercap-ui

What if you clear broken packages and reinstall them in full?

Maybe I did not declare things correctly. It is not the problem, to install a native installed kali and remove gdm3 afterwards.
I am speaking of a livebuild, where it is not possible, to avoid the installatiion of gdm3, because it is a dependency of some other package.

What I could do, is to edit the resulted squashfs file, so that lightdm is started. This means, unpack the squashfs file, edit it, then repack it and at last put it back into the iso-image.

Much effort, and I think it is easier, to configure the build in a way, that lightdm is started by default instead of gdm3.

Workaround at the moment: Boot the image, switch to another console (CTL + F2), then stop gdm3, and start lightdm. Anoying, but works.

Best

Hans

Is the switch/issue from lightdm to gdm3 originating from Kali and thus could be discussed here or inherited from Debian and thus would need to be discussed with Debian instead?

This I can not say.
At the moment I am trying a new thing: In "config/hooks/live/debloat*" I added a line "apt --purge -y remove gdm3", which shall (I hope) deinstall gdm3. As the build is still running on my system (which is not
so very fast), I will have to wait for the results.

In a few hours I will know more.

Well,, as no one could help till now, I found a workaround. Do the following:

1. Edit the file ~/config/hooks/live/remove-bloat-from-recommended-packages.chroot" and add the following line before the last command (which is apt-get -y autoremove --purge):

apt-get -y remove --purge gdm3

2. Set the rights of this file from 755 to 555. Otherwise it may be overwritten.

3. Note: You MUST edit it right after you have started the build, because the build.sh script will overwrite it at start, even when it is already set to 555 (maybe it uses ACL???).

4. There is enough time to edit this file after the start of the builing, as the download, the unpacking of the packages and its configuration lasts some time. The script will be called at the end of the build process.

This is working well here. However, as this is still a bug, it should be fixed though.

Feel free to ask for more information.

Hello,

if gdm3 is installed it's because it's pulled in as a dependency of another package. That's the most likely explanation.

I just checked the build logs for Kali 2026.2 (to be released soon), the live and live-everything images, with Xfce desktop: gdm3 is not installed. So it's likely that it's pulled in as a Dependency (or Recommendation) of a package that you listed in your file mylist.list.chroot. I don't know which one, but it should be easy to find out. After you boot your live image, run apt rdepends --installed gdm3 to find the offending package.

Removing gdm3 from a postinst script is the right approach. As you might have seen, there's already a script kali-config/variant-xfce/hooks/live/remove-bloat-from-recommended-packages.chroot where we do that, so you can remove gdm3 from there. Just check your build logs to see what other packages get removed. If gdm3 was installed as a Recommendation of another package, then it should remove just fine. If it was installed as a Dependency of another package, then removing it will cause removal of this other package(s) as well.

Another approach would be to configure your system to use lightdm rather than gdm3 in case both are installed. I don't know how to do that though, so I can't advise.

Hi Arnaud,
as you have seen in my latest post I already found the remove-debloat*-script and added gdm3 to removed. You are rright, gdm3 is installed by kali-linux-everything (as dependency), but the problem is:
It is a) used the default login-manager and b) it is broken.
For me I could fix it by uninstalling it with the above script, but pleayse note, that it is still broken.

As it is a live-build I can not force to use lightdm as default login-manager (at leasst I found no way for this), as it preconfigured is to use gdm3 as login-manager when both are installed.
This is since a few days that way. Maybe because the change of installation order?

The solution for me, was to deinstall gdm3 by the debloat-script, which did not break any other packages (deinstalling caused only two other package beein autoremoved, gnome-session-something which did not
effect any other apps as I am not using gnome but xfce.

What I can not say, if gdm3 is working together with gnome as windowmanager, maybe in this combination the issue daoes not appear. In combination gdm3 + xfce I can not login, and - maybe this is a hint - can not switch to console F1 (CTRL+ F1).

CTRL + F2 / F3 / F4 / F5 and F6 are working. Runnimg in a virtual environment like virtualbox or vrt-manager it switches automatically back to F7 after a few seconds.

Maybe you might want to still have a look at gdm3, so I let this bugreport open.

Sorry for the bad news.

Best

Hans

Hi Arnaud,
thinking of the solution with the "remove-bloat-from-recommended-packages.chroot"-script I suppose, this can be improved.

The problem here is, that the script is always overwritten, when starting a new build. Also lb clean --purge will delete it. That is not the best situation, because it is easy to forget something to edit.
On the other hand, IMO, this script is fine for developers, that they can predefine, which packages should be purged by default. Doing so, the actual way is fine.

So I might want to suggest another solution: How about adding a second script which does the same, but where the user can add his own packages, he might not want?
For example a "remove-mybloat-from-packages.chroot"? This script should be executed after the original "debloat-*" and should also contain the line "apt-get -y --purge autoremove" line. As this line may not be
deleted, I suggest to add a comment for this in the script.

What do you think of my idea? Maybe you might inroduce it to your team?

Best regards

Hans