diff -ruNp proftpd-1.3.5.orig/src/wtmp.c proftpd-1.3.5/src/wtmp.c
--- proftpd-1.3.5.orig/src/wtmp.c	2013-12-09 20:16:15.000000000 +0100
+++ proftpd-1.3.5/src/wtmp.c	2015-04-03 11:47:21.710554599 +0200
@@ -136,11 +136,33 @@ int log_wtmp(const char *line, const cha
   struct utmp ut;
   static int fd = -1;
 
+#if defined(HAVE_UTMPX_H)
+#if !defined(WTMPX_FILE) && defined(_PATH_WTMPX)
+# define WTMPX_FILE _PATH_WTMPX
+#endif
+  static char *wtmp_file = NULL;
+  if (wtmp_file == NULL) {
+    if (access(WTMPX_FILE"x", F_OK) == 0)
+      wtmp_file = WTMPX_FILE"x";
+    else if (access(WTMPX_FILE, F_OK) == 0)
+      wtmp_file = WTMPX_FILE;
+    else if (access(WTMP_FILE"x", F_OK) == 0)
+      wtmp_file = WTMP_FILE"x";
+    else if (access(WTMP_FILE, F_OK) == 0)
+      wtmp_file = WTMP_FILE;
+    else {
+      pr_log_pri(PR_LOG_WARNING, "cannot find "WTMPX_FILE);
+      return -1;
+    }
+  }
+#else
+  static char *wtmp_file = WTMP_FILE;
+#endif
   if (fd < 0 &&
-      (fd = open(WTMP_FILE, O_WRONLY|O_APPEND, 0)) < 0) {
+      (fd = open(wtmp_file, O_WRONLY|O_APPEND, 0)) < 0) {
     int xerrno = errno;
 
-    pr_log_pri(PR_LOG_WARNING, "failed to open wtmp %s: %s", WTMP_FILE,
+    pr_log_pri(PR_LOG_WARNING, "failed to open wtmp %s: %s", wtmp_file,
       strerror(xerrno));
 
     errno = xerrno;