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My /etc/motd file is showing duplicate messages. When I edit it manual, it keeps returning to the messed up version whenever a user logs in. How do I stop this? I'm using Ubuntu 10.04

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2 Answers

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The MOTD is generated by a script. To prevent the default MOTD from reverting, remove the execute bit from the /etc/update-motd.d/00-header file and put your desired MOTD text into /etc/motd.tail. Or, to keep the default MOTD text and just append your own text to it, leave the 00-header file alone and add your text to the motd.tail file.

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Thanks - the duplicate message was in motd.tail - changing it fixed the issue – dougk Apr 28 '11 at 6:33
up vote 6 down vote

By default, in recent releases of Debian and Ubuntu (including yours), /etc/motd is a symbolic link to /var/run/motd, which is regenerated at each login by the update-motd framework.

If you want a static /etc/motd remove a symbolic link and create a regular file in its place. Or you can edit the pam_motd calls in /etc/pam.d/* and pass motd=/etc/motd.dougk.

The underlying issue is probably due to some breakage in /etc/update-motd.d/*, possibly a backup file duplicating the effect of the corresponding main file.

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How this helped me fix it: I commented out one of the pam_motd lines in /etc/pam.d/ and now I'm back to a single MOTD. Thanks! – adam_0 Jan 30 at 18:52

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