After some testing:
- The newer package also fails the tests on Questing
- The older package passes the tests on Questing and Resolute

So there must be something part of that package. I studied the diff,
and some parts got my attention:
- debian/changelog 2.6-2, (I don't know how I missed that before...)
   > + * Enable libsystemd support to restore utmp functionality in
   > + syslogd and talkd, on systems running systemd.
- debian/rules
   > + confflags += --enable-systemd

So that "libsystemd" enablement to restore "utmp" fonctionality might
be the root cause. I'm not completely sure what all of this changes, I
will try to keep investigating. I guess libsystemd might have
something to do with the tty sessions we mentioned earlier.

On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 at 13:05, Valentin Haudiquet
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > Since the testing user is only notified when VERBOSE=yes, this should not
> happen with just "make TESTS=syslogd.sh check", i.e., that should pass.
>
> Indeed, it's a PASS on my machine.
>
> > Do you see any suspicious lines in the output of the "w", "who", and/or
> "last" commands?  I.e., any entry in the TTY column that does not look
> like a TTY, or a missing entry in that column?
>
> Yes ! w and who are normal, but last shows:
> ```
> [vhaudiquet@x1c inetutils <merge-lp2130124-resolute>]$ last
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Nov  6 12:00 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Nov  6 12:00 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Sat Nov  1 19:03 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Sat Nov  1 19:03 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Tue Oct 28 11:39 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Tue Oct 28 11:39 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Tue Oct 28 07:02 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Tue Oct 28 07:02 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Mon Oct 27 17:36 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Mon Oct 27 17:36 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Mon Oct 27 16:44 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Mon Oct 27 16:44 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Tue Oct  7 17:11 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Tue Oct  7 17:11 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 23:13 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 23:13 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 14:29 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 14:29 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 14:26 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 14:26 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 12:34 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 12:34 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 12:00 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 12:00 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 11:50 - 11:59  (00:09)
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 11:50 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 11:35 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 11:35 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu tty2         tty2             Thu Oct  2 11:20 - still logged in
> vhaudiqu seat0        login screen     Thu Oct  2 11:20 - still logged in
> ```
>
> However, that is also the case on Questing and older Ubuntu releases.
> And to my understanding that is normal :)
> On the autopkgtest, the VERBOSE variable is set, and my guess is that
> the machine running those being a server and not a desktop, there is
> no "seat0" but "sshd" sessions arround, which explains that error.
>
> Something must have changed, that before did not pick up those
> sessions and now picks them up instead of the right one ?
> I'm not sure indeed which part of the system handles that, but I will
> try to reproduce on different versions of Ubuntu with different
> versions of the package and keep you posted.
>
> Thanks !
> Valentin
>
> On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 at 11:37, Erik Auerswald <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Valentin.
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 12, 2025 at 09:37:42AM +0100, Valentin Haudiquet wrote:
> > >
> > > Thank you for looking at the bug, I'm sorry I wasn't available to give
> > > you an answer earlier.
> >
> > No problem, thanks for the follow up.
> >
> > > I just applied your patch and ran the test locally on my machine with
> > > `make TESTS=syslogd.sh VERBOSE=yes check >log.txt 2>&1`, and it still
> > > fails in the same way. I'm on Ubuntu 26.04 development preview
> > > (resolute raccoon). The log.txt file is attached, along with
> > > tests/syslogd.sh.log.
> > >
> > > The difference here is that it complains about a missing "/dev/seat0"
> > > instead of "/dev/sshd".
> >
> > Thanks!  The logs show that the generated syslogd configuration files
> > look as expected.
> >
> > I think the following happens:
> >
> >  1. VERBOSE=yes results in adding a line to message the user running
> >     the tests to the first generated configuration file.
> >
> >  2. When syslogd reads information about logged in users in order to
> >     determine which (pseudo) TTYs need to be messaged, it finds something
> >     different ("/dev/sshd" or "/dev/seat0") that does not represent a
> >     (pseudo) TTY.
> >
> >  3. When attempting to send a message to such a non-(pseudo) TTY, this
> >     fails, and syslogd logs an error message.
> >
> >  4. The tests don't expect syslog error messages and thus fail.
> >
> > Since the testing user is only notified when VERBOSE=yes, this should not
> > happen with just "make TESTS=syslogd.sh check", i.e., that should pass.
> >
> > Do you see any suspicious lines in the output of the "w", "who", and/or
> > "last" commands?  I.e., any entry in the TTY column that does not look
> > like a TTY, or a missing entry in that column?
> >
> > > I will try to investigate a bit more as well; it seems that those
> > > tests are passing on resolute for inetutils 2.6-1ubuntu3, so I will
> > > try to look for the diff with 2.6-4ubuntu1 around that test, even
> > > though I did not find anything relevant at first.
> >
> > It might be related with utmp reading functions in Glibc or possibly
> > Gnulib replacements for those.  I am not familiar with this, and
> > the syslogd source seems to implement different methods to read this
> > information depending on what functions are available. I do not expect
> > to find a quick solution.  I do think that there is a bug (or missing
> > interoperation feature) somewhere, but I am not even sure where.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Erik

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