Ubuntu – Motd displayed twice

12.04motdserverssh

So here's the deal. I've created /etc/motd.tail as suggested by Ubuntu documentation which should append STATIC content to /etc/motd . However as well as this work, it displays the MOTD TWICE when I log on to the server via ssh.
W00t ?! Is there any way to fix this ? This does seem like a bug to me.
Thanks

Best Answer

For me it was two places causing motd to be displayed twice: 1) pam.d 2) sshd

~> cd /etc/pam.d ~> grep -i motd * and then editing /etc/pam.d/sshd (may differ from version to version so confirm with grep output) and hash out these two lines:

session optional pam_motd.so motd=/run/motd.dynamic session optional pam_motd.so noupdate

My /etc/ssh/sshd_config also had #PrintMotd=yes (default is yes so it was active even if it was #'d out)

In the end I set /etc/ssh/sshd_config MOTD option to PrintMotd=no (not removed the # and set to no to replace the default) and enabled the /etc/pam.d/sshd motd lines so the /etc/ssh/sshd_config option printlastlog=yes will print the last login information after the pam.d motd is displayed.

Pam will also use the options in /etc/update-motd.d/ to customise the /etc/motd as well which sshd will not do as it will simply display what is already there.

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Best Answer

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