wtmp question

[MaD dUCK <madduck@madduck.net>]

another question about my non-working system...

i finger a user to retrieve the following information:

diamond:~# finger nori
Login: nori                             Name: Nori
Directory: /home/nori                   Shell: /bin/bash
Never logged in.
No mail.
No Plan.
diamond:~# 

however, the user has logged in previously.

if i finger while the user is online through ssh (that's all i ever
allow, no telnet, no console):

diamond:~# finger nori
Login: nori                             Name: Nori
Directory: /home/nori                   Shell: /bin/bash
On since Wed Apr  4 17:14 (EDT) on pts/4 from fishbowl.dyn.madduck.net
   1 second idle
No mail.
No Plan.
diamond:~# 

i would like to be able to see when a user last logged in. this is
handled by wtmp, right?

diamond:~# ls -la /var/log/wtmp
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     utmp        29568 Apr  4 17:14 /var/log/wtmp
diamond:~# 

looks good (another system where this works has the same permissions).

any clues on how to fix this?

martin;              (greetings from the heart of the sun.)
  \____ echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:"; net@madduck
-- 
out of my mind. back in five minutes.