diff --git a/gnu/packages/display-managers.scm b/gnu/packages/display-managers.scm
index 5152eb6479..b210b11bc6 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/display-managers.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/display-managers.scm
@@ -385,6 +385,7 @@ (define-public lightdm
       #:parallel-tests? #f             ; fails when run in parallel
       #:configure-flags
       #~(list "--localstatedir=/var"
+              "--sysconfdir=/etc"
               "--enable-gtk-doc"
               ;; Otherwise the test suite fails on such a warning.
               "CFLAGS=-Wno-error=missing-prototypes")
@@ -412,7 +413,11 @@ (define-public lightdm
                 `("GI_TYPELIB_PATH" ":" prefix (,(getenv "GI_TYPELIB_PATH"))))
               ;; Avoid printing locale warnings, which trip up the text
               ;; matching tests.
-              (unsetenv "LC_ALL"))))))
+              (unsetenv "LC_ALL")))
+          (replace 'install
+           (lambda* (#:key make-flags #:allow-other-keys)
+             (apply invoke "make" "install" (string-append "sysconfdir=" #$output "/etc")
+                    make-flags))))))
     (inputs
      (list audit
            bash-minimal                 ;for cross-compilation
diff --git a/gnu/services/lightdm.scm b/gnu/services/lightdm.scm
index 798c106563..9dff263854 100644
--- a/gnu/services/lightdm.scm
+++ b/gnu/services/lightdm.scm
@@ -401,10 +401,11 @@ (define (lightdm-configuration->greeters-config-dir config)
   "Return a directory containing all the serialized greeter configurations
 from CONFIG, a <lightdm-configuration> object."
   (file-union "etc-lightdm"
-              (append-map (lambda (g)
-                            `((,(greeter-configuration->conf-name g)
-                               ,(greeter-configuration->file g))))
-                          (lightdm-configuration-greeters config))))
+              (cons `("lightdm.conf" ,(lightdm-configuration-file config))
+               (append-map (lambda (g)
+                             `((,(greeter-configuration->conf-name g)
+                                ,(greeter-configuration->file g))))
+                           (lightdm-configuration-greeters config)))))
 
 (define (lightdm-configuration->packages config)
   "Return all the greeter packages and their assets defined in CONFIG, a