Hi,
On Debian Etch up to date, the "who" command reports no user logged in when logging in from KDM. Seems like who reads file /var/run/utmp to find out who's logged. When using GDM, "who" reports user logged in in :0 but none using pts/N even with many konsole open on screen.

Logging in using text console (CTRL-ALT-F1) seems to log user in /var/run/utmp fine, "who" reports the logged in user from the console but none from the GUI.

Investigation of potential error messages in /var/log/kdm.log, /var/log/messages, /var/log/Xorg.0.log didn't help.

It seems that kdm uses "sessreg" command to record logged in user /var/run/utmp.

Investigation shoed that /etc/kde3/kdm/Xstartup which is supposed launch sessreg can't launch it because it's not in the path. Adding "echo $PATH" in /etc/kde3/kdm/Xstartup you see the PATH being; /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
but sessreg command is located in /usr/bin/X11/sessreg. Creating the softlink;
"ln -s /usr/bin/X11/sessreg /usr/bin/sessreg" fixed kdm to record user logged in on :0 but still no user was reported using pts/N even with many konsole open on screen.

Therefore, it seems there is some broken PATH in some Etch scripts. Adding a softlink above is not the solution.

The system is using Xorg, KDE 3.5, Linux 2.6.15

any help would be appreciated.
thanks

Check out ¨man pts(4)¨

Bob

Hi,
Thanks for the info. The PTSs seems to be created properly. Listing them in /dev you can the number of PTS changing depending on how many terminal is opened. The WHO command and W command still reports no user logged in :-(

I.e.;
$ ls -l /dev/pts
total 0
crw--w---- 1 bozo tty 136, 0 2006-05-30 18:29 0
crw------- 1 bozo tty 136, 1 2006-05-30 18:32 1
crw------- 1 bozo tty 136, 2 2006-05-30 18:32 2

Did you had any specific thing to check about PTS when you suggested man pts(4)?

thanks in advance

No, but I googled for a problem with you symptoms in several places, and they all referred to this man page as a solution. I have to admit that your particular problem is baffling. It doesn´nt seems to follow convention for PATHS. Hopefully, someone will know the answer.

Sorry I couldn´t be more help.

Bob