Ubuntu – No MOTD on Ubuntu 14.04…

motdssh

I recently did a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04. When I SSH, there is no MOTD (and yes, I have the appropriate command set in sshd_config).

I read a bunch of tutorials about setting up MOTD, but I realized that while I have /etc/update-motd.d, there is not /etc/motd file nor a /var/run/motd file.

How can I set these up so that I can get a MOTD via SSH?

Best Answer

On a base install of Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, simply drop the message you want in:

/etc/motd

By default, the MOTD will appear at the end of the other dynamic MOTD content. For example, here's the output from a Vagrant ubuntu/trusty64 (v20150506.0.0) box with a /etc/motd file added:

$ vagrant ssh
Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-52-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/

  System information as of Thu May 14 20:06:56 UTC 2015

  System load:  0.39              Processes:           78
  Usage of /:   2.8% of 39.34GB   Users logged in:     0
  Memory usage: 24%               IP address for eth0: 10.0.2.15
  Swap usage:   0%

  Graph this data and manage this system at:
    https://landscape.canonical.com/

  Get cloud support with Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Guest:
    http://www.ubuntu.com/business/services/cloud

0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.


#####################################
Howdy! This message is from /etc/motd
#####################################

Last login: Thu May 14 20:06:56 2015 from 10.0.2.2
vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$

That's all there is to it if you're working on a system with the default settings.

Some other troubleshooting notes:

  • Using "/etc/motd" is a change from earlier versions. Recommendations for 12.02 were to use "/etc/motd.tail". That doesn't work in 14.04.2.

  • Other recommendations I've seen include changing some values in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config". In case those have been altered, here's the defaults that work:

    UsePAM yes
PrintMotd no

  • Likewise, here are the defaults for the /etc/pam.d/login I've seen referenced:

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

That's everything I've seen referenced for troubleshooting.

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