LightDM logging of login and logout attempts

[miffy]

Hi everyone!

Since my computer st the office is always on nowadays, i can't use reboots and shutdowns as indicators of when i started and ended work as i did before.
So i thought i use login / logout events instead - but they seem not to be logged/protocolled anywhere.

I can't see anything of that kind in journalctl, /var/log/lightdm/ does not change in any way when i log out and in again and those "lightdm.log" files don't seem to have such information - or i can't identify it.

(The display manager seems to be LightDM with slick-greeter since it is an (in that regard) unchanged Mint 19.3 Cinnamon.)

Has anyone an idea how such logging can be accomplished?

[AndyMH]

Write a simple bash script with a desktop launcher to log when you started and again when you finish.

[smurphos]

Hi,

This can be informative

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journalctl -b | grep -E 'Started Session|Stopping Session'

Example

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steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl -b | grep -E 'Started Session|Stopping Session'
Jul 02 07:05:03 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c1 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 07:05:10 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c1 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 07:05:10 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c2 of user steve.
Jul 02 07:11:51 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c2 of user steve.
Jul 02 07:11:52 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c3 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 07:12:00 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c3 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 07:12:00 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c4 of user steve.

Interpretation - Booted and logged in at 7:05. Logged out at 7:11, logged back in at 7:12.

Note on this system in /etc/systemd/logind.conf I've set KillUserProcesses=yes

The default is no. On systems with the default, user sessions aren't stopped on logout so you'd get output like this which isn't quite as clearcut.

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steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl -b -1 | grep -E 'Started Session|Stopping Session'
Jul 02 05:52:02 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c1 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 05:52:13 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c1 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 05:52:13 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c2 of user steve.
Jul 02 06:57:45 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c3 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 06:57:51 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c3 of user lightdm.
Jul 02 06:57:51 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Started Session c4 of user steve.
Jul 02 07:04:40 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c2 of user steve.
Jul 02 07:04:40 steve-Inspiron-5580 systemd[1]: Stopping Session c4 of user steve.

Interpretation - Booted and logged in at 5:52, logged out at 6:57 (i.e if lightdm has started then steve has either logged out or the switch user function has been invoked), logged back in at 6:57, rebooted at 7:04

[miffy]

OMG i'm so f***** lazy. BIG Sorry.

... i was googling how to solve a problem - found this thread and thought: Interesting - this guy has *the exact same problem*. (isn't there a facepalm Smiley anywhere?)

However - that unfortunately doesn't work:

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journalctl --since 2021-03-24 -b  | grep -E 'Started Session|Stopping Session'
Mär 30 18:19:00 oakland systemd[1]: Started Session 41239 of user rydell.
Mär 31 17:51:20 oakland systemd[1]: Started Session 42718 of user rydell.
<logging out>
<logging in>
journalctl --since 2021-03-24 -b  | grep -E 'Started Session|Stopping Session'
Mär 30 18:19:00 oakland systemd[1]: Started Session 41239 of user rydell.
Mär 31 17:51:20 oakland systemd[1]: Started Session 42718 of user rydell.

-> nothing changed.

I am not closing the session - i just log lock the Screen (Ctrl-Alt-l). Maybeeeee - that's not called "logging out" on second thought - but that's what i do.
I guess then there also isn't a point in writhing any scripts then?