VTE no longer does utmp logging. This was an upstream change made almost three years ago at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=747046, and is clearly not going to get reverted by upstream.
Actually, most other VTE-based emulators (e.g. xfce4-terminal) are also affected in newer Ubuntu releases, while a few VTE-based emulators (can't recall which ones, sorry) added back utmp logging of their own. Some other terminal emulators, such as terminology and st (Ubuntu package: stterm) don't do utmp logging either. Two possible command line solution are mentioned in comments 34 & 35 of the aforementioned link. They could be set up as "Custom command" in gnome-terminal, and are clearly more lightweight than ssh. Ubuntu should ship such a command line tool if it thinks that utmp logging is important, which was argued against in the VTE bug. ** Bug watch added: GNOME Bug Tracker #747046 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=747046 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gnome-terminal in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1747198 Title: who or w command produces no tty information about terminal To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+bug/1747198/+subscriptions -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs