I have created/edited /etc/motd and /etc/issue.* At first they did nothing at all, but I found /etc/login.defs and followed the hint there.
So now it has the line
MOTD_FILE********** /etc/motd
for instance.* But instead of displaying the file on running login as root, I get
configuration error - unknown item 'MOTD_FILE' (notify administrator), and something
similar if I attempt to use /etc/issue.

Looking at /bin/login with strings(1), I find a format string that would produce this output.


Does anyone know how to correctly enable the message of the day and the greeting?

--
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:29 AM, Kevin O'Gorman <kogorman@gmail.com> wrote:

I have created/edited /etc/motd and /etc/issue.* At first they did nothing at all, but I found /etc/login.defs and followed the hint there.
So now it has the line
MOTD_FILE********** /etc/motd
for instance.* But instead of displaying the file on running login as root, I get

configuration error - unknown item 'MOTD_FILE' (notify administrator), and something
similar if I attempt to use /etc/issue.

Looking at /bin/login with strings(1), I find a format string that would produce this output.



Does anyone know how to correctly enable the message of the day and the greeting?

Mmmm.* I should add that despite these complaints, login is still possible, and what's
especially surprising is that the messages are actually displayed.* This suggests that

I'm not very far from having it right, but /bin/login wants to complain anyway.

--
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD

On Thursday 08 July 2010 18:29:56 Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> I have created/edited /etc/motd and /etc/issue. At first they did nothing
> at all, but I found /etc/login.defs and followed the hint there.
> So now it has the line
> MOTD_FILE /etc/motd
> for instance. But instead of displaying the file on running login as root,
> I get
> configuration error - unknown item 'MOTD_FILE' (notify administrator), and
> something
> similar if I attempt to use /etc/issue.
>
> Looking at /bin/login with strings(1), I find a format string that would
> produce this output.
>
> Does anyone know how to correctly enable the message of the day and the
> greeting?

Is this a console login or via ssh?

Is sshd configured to use login, or to do all that itself?
/etc/issue doesn't show up on console logins, it is for ancient stuff like
telnet and rlogin, never for console login.


--
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
I have created/edited /etc/motd and /etc/issue. At first they did
nothing at all, but I found /etc/login.defs and followed the hint there.

So now it has the line
MOTD_FILE /etc/motd
for instance. But instead of displaying the file on running login as
root, I get
configuration error - unknown item 'MOTD_FILE' (notify administrator),
and something

similar if I attempt to use /etc/issue.

Looking at /bin/login with strings(1), I find a format string that
would produce this output.


Does anyone know how to correctly enable the message of the day and
the greeting?


--
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD



I found this thread.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-97905-highlight-motd.html

I haven't used it but may be worth looking at to compare notes.

Dale

:-) :-)

On Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:10:02 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote about Re:
[gentoo-user] /etc/motd and /etc/issue just error out....:

>On Thursday 08 July 2010 18:29:56 Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
[snip]
>> Does anyone know how to correctly enable the message of the day and
>> the greeting?

If you are using PAM for authentication of logins, there is a motd
parameter in /etc/pam.d/login. Its default value is /etc/motd.

>Is this a console login or via ssh?
>
>Is sshd configured to use login, or to do all that itself?
>/etc/issue doesn't show up on console logins, it is for ancient stuff
>like telnet and rlogin, never for console login.

I thought /etc/issue was for the *getty programs to emit a pre-login
greeting/warning/whatever, and was unrelated to login.
--
Regards,

Dave [RLU #314465]
================================================== ====================
dwnoon@ntlworld.com (David W Noon)
================================================== ====================

On Thursday 08 July 2010 21:25:03 David W Noon wrote:
> >Is sshd configured to use login, or to do all that itself?
> >/etc/issue doesn't show up on console logins, it is for ancient stuff
> >like telnet and rlogin, never for console login.
>
> I thought /etc/issue was for the *getty programs to emit a pre-login
> greeting/warning/whatever, and was unrelated to login.

Yes, you are right. The one for network logins is /etc/netissue or issue-net
or some such.

It's been years since I went anywhere near that stuff, and wetware RAM is
notoriously bad ;-)


--
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 12:45 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thursday 08 July 2010 21:25:03 David W Noon wrote:

> >Is sshd configured to use login, or to do all that itself?

> >/etc/issue doesn't show up on console logins, it is for ancient stuff

> >like telnet and rlogin, never for console login.

>

> I thought /etc/issue was for the *getty programs to emit a pre-login

> greeting/warning/whatever, and was unrelated to login.



Yes, you are right. The one for network logins is /etc/netissue or issue-net

or some such.



It's been years since I went anywhere near that stuff, and wetware RAM is

notoriously bad ;-)



Well, I mostly wanted to make the stuff work, then sort out which piece was which.
I have only 3 kinds of login: consoles (Ctl-Alt-F1, etc), ssh logins, and window manager
logins.* For the window manager, I imagine I'm stuck with tweaking /etc/profile, or some

such, depending on the shell (always bash on this machine).

It just seemed perverse that the one way I found to make them work also makes something
emit error messages.* Grrrrrrr.

--
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD