> That delay is /usr/bin/login searching the system logs > so that it can display the date and time of your last login. Normally Unixes (Linux included) use a

> That delay is /usr/bin/login searching the system logs > so that it can display the date and time of your last login. Normally Unixes (Linux included) use a pretty efficient binary file called wtmp for that, I'm surprised if OS X doesn't. Reading the last disk block of that file would contain the last login with overwhelming probability. There has to be a lot of seeks even on a slow laptop rotating hd to get a 5 second delay, with 15 ms seek time you get 333 seeks in 5 secs.