diff --git a/package/systemd/Config.in b/package/systemd/Config.in
index 45a9e2d644..33ac03e584 100644
--- a/package/systemd/Config.in
+++ b/package/systemd/Config.in
@@ -518,6 +518,26 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_SYSTEMD_USERDB
 
 	  https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-userdbd.service.html
 
+config BR2_PACKAGE_SYSTEMD_UTMP
+	bool "enable utmp support"
+	help
+	  systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service is a service that writes
+	  SysV runlevel changes to utmp and wtmp, as well as the audit
+	  logs, as they occur.  systemd-update-utmp.service does the
+	  same for system reboots and shutdown requests.
+
+	  https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-update-utmp.service.html
+
+	  Utmp keeps track of what users do on the system (where they
+	  logged from, on which terminal, ...) along with a general
+	  status of the system (list of reboots, current uptime, current
+	  number of users logged in).
+
+	  You should only enable this if your system will have actual
+	  users who log in.
+
+	  https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/utmp.5.html
+
 config BR2_PACKAGE_SYSTEMD_VCONSOLE
 	bool "enable vconsole tool"
 	default y
diff --git a/package/systemd/systemd.mk b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
index b96873b73f..f191542866 100644
--- a/package/systemd/systemd.mk
+++ b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
@@ -87,8 +87,7 @@ SYSTEMD_CONF_OPTS += \
 	-Dtelinit-path= \
 	-Dtests=false \
 	-Dtmpfiles=true \
-	-Dumount-path=/usr/bin/umount \
-	-Dutmp=false
+	-Dumount-path=/usr/bin/umount
 
 SYSTEMD_CFLAGS = $(TARGET_CFLAGS)
 ifeq ($(BR2_OPTIMIZE_FAST),y)
@@ -331,6 +330,12 @@ else
 SYSTEMD_CONF_OPTS += -Dbinfmt=false
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_SYSTEMD_UTMP),y)
+SYSTEMD_CONF_OPTS += -Dutmp=true
+else
+SYSTEMD_CONF_OPTS += -Dutmp=false
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_SYSTEMD_VCONSOLE),y)
 SYSTEMD_CONF_OPTS += -Dvconsole=true
 else