Unable to get w or who commands working after Debian 13 upgrade

jgreyz · August 3, 2026, 8:40pm

Creating a bug report/issue

I have searched the existing open and closed issues

Required Information

DietPi version | cat /boot/dietpi/.version
- G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=10
- G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=5
- G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=2
- G_GITBRANCH=‘master’
- G_GITOWNER=‘MichaIng’
Distro version | echo $G_DISTRO_NAME $G_RASPBIAN
- trixie 0
Kernel version | uname --all
- Linux trixienow 6.18.39+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.18.39-1+rpt1 (2026-07-29) aarch64 GNU/Linux
Architecture | dpkg --print-architecture
- arm64
SBC model | echo $G_HW_MODEL_NAME or (EG: RPi3)
- Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4
Power supply used | (EG: 5V 1A RAVpower)
- Official Raspberry Pi 4 AC Adapter
SD card used | (EG: SanDisk ultra)
- N/A as running only off USB hard drive

Additional Information (if applicable)

Software title | (EG: Nextcloud)
- Upgraded from Debian 12 to Debian 13
Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated?
- w and who were working before the upgrade
Can this issue be replicated on a fresh installation of DietPi?
- I believe so
Bug report ID | echo $G_HW_UUID

Steps to reproduce

Upgrade Dietpi running Debian 12 (bookworm) to Debian 13 (trixie) using the script located at Debian 13 Trixie has been released – DietPi Blog
The above blog post mentions software to install to get the functionality back for w and who, but that does not work.
I do find This Github issue mentioning how to get w and who working, but that does not work either.
Unable to have functional w and who commands as in Debian 12 (bookworm).

Expected behaviour

w and who commands should function in Debian 13 (trixie) as they were in Debian 12 (bookworm).

Actual behaviour

w and who commands are not functional after upgrading to Debian 13 (trixie).

Extra details

N/A

paste lines of logs or code into such code fences here

MichaIng · August 3, 2026, 10:40pm

See here below “1.3.2 lastlog and wtmp/utmp replacements”: Debian 13 Trixie has been released – DietPi Blog

jgreyz · August 4, 2026, 1:59am

I read that and installed everything recommended as follows:

sudo apt install lastlog2 libpam-lastlog2 wtmpdb libpam-wtmpdb dbus
sudo systemctl unmask systemd-logind
sudo systemctl start dbus systemd-logind

But I’m confused as to how to get w and who functional. Do I just have lastlog2 as their replacement?

MichaIng · August 4, 2026, 12:22pm

Oh, for these two, systemd PAM integration is needed, which we missed in the blog post:

sudo apt install libpam-systemd

This also means, that logins via Dropbear SSH server are not tracked, since it has no full PAM integration.

lastlog2 and wtmpdb are both not needed for w and who.

jgreyz · August 6, 2026, 1:53pm

Odd as that was already installed and neither w nor who are functioning as expected.

The output of who produces is nothing.

The output of w is :

$ w
 09:52:15 up 2 days, 17:26,  0 users,  load average: 0.33, 0.37, 0.35
USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT

Any ideas what to try next?

MichaIng · August 6, 2026, 2:08pm

As of my note about Dropbear: Do you use OpenSSH as SSH server, or does it not work on local console (HDMI) logins either?

jgreyz · August 6, 2026, 2:20pm

I use OpenSSH, so I was expecting it to now function. It is running headless, so have been unable to test on local console (HDMI) login yet.

MichaIng · August 6, 2026, 10:55pm

Hmm. I just did this on a fresh DietPi system:

Switch to OpenSSH server in dietpi-software

 apt install libpam-systemd
 systemctl unmask systemd-logind
 systemctl start dbus systemd-logind
 exit

Reconnect via SSH, then:

root@VM-Trixie:~# w
 00:53:55 up 3 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.06, 0.10, 0.05
USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
root     pts/0    192.168.1.3      00:53    1.00s  0.02s   ?    w
root@VM-Trixie:~# who
root     sshd pts/0   2026-08-07 00:53 (192.168.1.3)

If this really does not work in your case, verify that systemd-logind succeeded, and that you really connected through OpenSSH:

systemctl status systemd-logind
pgrep sshd-session
echo $PPID

jgreyz · August 7, 2026, 2:45am

I have followed the instructions you’ve provided and still having same issue in OP.

This system is not a fresh DietPi system, as it has been upgraded from Debian 11 → 12 → and now to 13. This functionality did work with the two previous Debian releases.

Here is what I get to verify that systemd-logind succeeded:

$ sudo systemctl status systemd-logind
● systemd-logind.service - User Login Management
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-logind.service; static)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-logind.service.d
             └─dbus.conf
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-08-03 16:25:34 EDT; 3 days ago
 Invocation: 072b2ceca5d44331b71845bb5f313dad
       Docs: man:sd-login(3)
             man:systemd-logind.service(8)
             man:logind.conf(5)
             man:org.freedesktop.login1(5)
   Main PID: 362 (systemd-logind)
     Status: "Processing requests..."
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 9394)
   FD Store: 2 (limit: 768)
     Memory: 2.1M (peak: 2.8M)
        CPU: 1.319s
     CGroup: /system.slice/systemd-logind.service
             └─362 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-logind

Aug 03 22:00:09 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: Session c1 logged out. Waiting for processes to exit.
Aug 03 22:00:09 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: Removed session c1.
Aug 03 22:00:19 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: Removed session 1.
Aug 04 08:32:25 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: New session c2 of user root.
Aug 04 08:32:25 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: New session 22 of user root.
Aug 04 08:41:10 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: Session c2 logged out. Waiting for processes to exit.
Aug 04 08:41:10 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: Removed session c2.
Aug 04 08:41:20 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: Removed session 22.
Aug 06 22:37:03 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: New session c3 of user root.
Aug 06 22:37:04 trixienow systemd-logind[362]: New session 99 of user root.

$ pgrep sshd-session
22327
22329
22438
22440

$ echo $PPID
22329

When I SSH in, I still do not see the login with w, but if I sudo -i to the root user after login, then I do see that, as shown here:

$ w
 22:42:58 up 3 days,  6:17,  0 users,  load average: 0.51, 0.34, 0.24
USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
$ w
 22:43:03 up 3 days,  6:17,  1 user,  load average: 0.47, 0.34, 0.24
USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
root     pts/1    -                22:43    7.00s  0.11s  0.04s sudo -i

This is unexpected behavior, so any suggestions on what to try next are greatly appreciated.