On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 3:08 AM, Bob Proulx <b...@proulx.com> wrote: > Joel Rees wrote: > > Joel Rees wrote: > > > I've never been clear about the last command. My memory is that it > > > recorded logins to the desktop as well as to ttyn devices. > > To be pedantic the "last" command isn't recording anything. It is > only reporting what has already been recorded. >
Yeah, that has become clear as I dig into this. > > > Today, I'm checking my logs, and I don't see any record of logins > > > to the desktop unless the user also started a shell in a virtual > > > terminal. > > That would be due to your xdm, gdm, gdm3, lightdm, kdm or other > graphical login manager. I recently switched from gdm or gdm3 (don't remember which) to lightdm. > It is responsible for recording desktop > logins. Some do. Some do not. If they don't then I think that is a > bug. But people who know about last and logins are becoming fewer > every day and so this part of the system has atrophied. > erk. > > > Has this changed recently? I'm I imagining things? Is there some > setting > > > that changes this, that might have changed when I upgraded from > squeeze to > > > wheezy? > > Try different graphical login managers and compare them. > > > Okay, I finally decided to log out of my X11 session on my netbook > (Fedora) > > and found that my memory was wrong. > > > > last does not report logins to X11 desktop sessions. > > What graphical login manager are you using? As I recall lightdm for > example does not record this information. I am pretty sure I saw that > there was a bug report on it. Ah... Here it is: > > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=648604 > Oh! Lookie there! The relevant line from the bug report: > In order to have lightdm write to the last log, you have to enable the > pam_lastlog.so module in /etc/pam.d/lightdm with: > > session optional pam_lastlog.so (I think I need to start getting familiar with the debian bug reporting processes and lists.) Anyway, I added that line to /etc/lightdm and /etc/lightdm-autologin, at the end, right before the @include common-password line, and I'm getting login logs again. who works again, etc. Thanks, Bob. > [...] > -- Joel Rees
