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 Desktop Packages, 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 Status in gnome-terminal package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: ~$ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS Release: 16.04 ~$ apt-cache policy gnome-terminal gnome-terminal: Installed: 3.18.3-1ubuntu1 Candidate: 3.18.3-1ubuntu1 Version table: *** 3.18.3-1ubuntu1 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status When running the `who` or `w` commands in a gnome-terminal window, it is not shown. Nor can you send a write username [tty] command to the gnome-terminal that is open. From the gnome-terminal: ~$ w 14:41:59 up 6:01, 3 users, load average: 0.19, 0.25, 0.18 USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT terrance tty7 :0 08:40 6:01m 25:07 0.08s /sbin/upstart - terrance pts/1 :0.0 11:00 2:58m 0.47s 0.47s bash terrance pts/6 :0.0 11:02 1:58 0.46s 0.46s bash ~$ tty /dev/pts/7 ~$ write terrance /dev/pts/7 write: terrance is not logged in on pts/7 From a xfce4-terminal window: ~$ w 14:52:27 up 6:12, 3 users, load average: 0.34, 0.28, 0.21 USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT terrance tty7 :0 08:40 6:11m 25:23 0.08s /sbin/upstart - terrance pts/1 :0.0 11:00 3:09m 0.47s 0.47s bash terrance pts/6 :0.0 11:02 1.00s 0.48s 0.01s w ~$ tty /dev/pts/6 ~$ write terrance /dev/pts/6 Message from terrance@terrance-ubuntu on pts/6 at 14:53 ... EOF This seems to be only showing problems in the gnome-terminal. Any other terminal I have tried has worked successfully. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: gnome-terminal 3.18.3-1ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-32.35~16.04.1-generic 4.13.13 Uname: Linux 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: XFCE Date: Sat Feb 3 14:48:05 2018 ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=en_US PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: gnome-terminal UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+bug/1747198/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
