How do I remove the dots from the login screen?

For 12.04 and 14.04

Try the following commands in a terminal. It should work.

sudo xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm
sudo su lightdm -s /bin/bash
gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter draw-grid false
exit

References:

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11840170&postcount=25
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1958219

This answer applies only to Ubuntu 11.04

Thanks to @Blitz and @Zoke for their answers. However, I've created a more complete solution. I've modified the package unity-greeter to remove the dots and I've packaged it in a PPA.

Anyone who wants to be rid of the dots can use my PPA. Here are instructions:

1. Add the PPA:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scott.severance/lightdm
   

2. Run sudo apt-get update

3. Run sudo apt-get upgrade
4. The dots are now gone.

It is hard coded in the sources. I have disabled it on my install by making a small change in the source of user-list.vala.

A quick step by step guide.

sudo apt-get install build-essential
apt-get source unity-greeter
sudo apt-get build-dep unity-greeter
cd unity-greeter-0.1.1/src/
vim user-list.vala +252

Remove the line or just add // at the beginning of the line. Save and exit.

cd ..
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i unity-greeter_0.1.1-0ubuntu1_*.deb

Ubuntu will try to replace the custom built package when performing a system upgrade. Just uncheck unity-greeter to keep the custom one or reinstall the custom one using 'dpkg' after the upgrade.

[Edit]

To prevent the package manager from replacing your custom unity-greeter just run

sudo apt-mark hold unity-greeter

At the moment at least this is not currently possible. I have done some reading around before and it seems to be hard coded in. Hopefully the devs will include a way to get rid of them eventually.