Linux Mint (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes, conveniency is the problem.  So, the question is how do I disable automatic login for Linux Mint 13?  When I tried to disable automatic login for Linux Mint 13 through graphical user interface and it failed to do just that.  I scratched my head.  Looked around the web and some Linux users suggested that I could totally edit the mdm.conf file.  This was what I did and it worked.  Here is how:

1. Open up a terminal
2. Do [sudo -i] and type in your sudo password (i.e., a user who has the authorization to become administrator through sudo command).  By the way, do not use the square brackets in your command line as they’re there for clarity only.
3. Type in the command [cp -p -a /etc/mdm/mdm.conf /etc/mdm/mdm.conf-old].  What this command does is to create a copy of the file you about to edit.  By doing this, you can recover the file when you completely mess up the original file.  It’s a security measure that all Linux users should practice when editing an important file.
4. Type in the command [vim.tiny /etc/mdm/mdm.conf].
5. Hit letter [i] on the keyboard to enter editing mode.
6. Find the line which says AutomaticLoginEnable=true, and change the true part to false.  It should look like this AutomaticLoginEnable=false.  Make sure you know how to use vim.tiny OK?  If not, try to edit the mdm.conf file with nano editor instead.
7. Also, find the line which says TimedLoginEnable=true, and change the true part to false.  It should look like this afterward, TimedLoginEnable=false.
8. As you’re using vim.tiny editor, to save the new change of mdm.conf file, you must hit [Esc] key first, type in a colon second (i.e., [:]), type in [wq] right after the colon, and then hit enter key to save and exit the mdm.conf file.  It should look like this [:wq].
9. Type [exit] and hit enter key in the terminal to exit root.
10. Type [exit] and hit the enter key again to exit the terminal altogether.

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