# Your motd screens



## wlanboy (Aug 9, 2013)

Looking forward to some new motd ideas.

My current motd:


----------



## wdq (Aug 9, 2013)

I have my MOTD show the provider, location, data center, system specifications, and price. I find SSHing into a VPS much easier than logging into a control panel and trying to find all of that information when I need to find it.


----------



## notFound (Aug 9, 2013)

I hate OTT MOTD's, personally I only have the last login, I can use commands to find other things. I used to be lazy but it just got to be a bother.


----------



## Magiobiwan (Aug 9, 2013)

I never bothered modifying mine. It doesn't really make much of a difference for me.


----------



## Lee (Aug 9, 2013)

I hate when you rarely need to log into a DNS box but when you do a big pony appears.  Keep thinking something just went wrong.


----------



## mikho (Aug 9, 2013)

Magiobiwan said:


> I never bothered modifying mine. It doesn't really make much of a difference for me.


This.


----------



## yolo (Aug 9, 2013)

I remember when I had time to have fun MOTD screens


----------



## kaniini (Aug 9, 2013)

My MOTD is just the default one for whatever distribution is on the server...


----------



## MannDude (Aug 9, 2013)

kaniini said:


> My MOTD is just the default one for whatever distribution is on the server...


Ditto.

Maybe I'll play with cowsay or figlet or something and try to make something halfway interesting.


----------



## shawn_ky (Aug 9, 2013)

kaniini said:


> My MOTD is just the default one for whatever distribution is on the server...


Same as mine.... but WDQ has a pretty good idea... 



wdq said:


> I have my MOTD show the provider, location, data center, system specifications, and price. I find SSHing into a VPS much easier than logging into a control panel and trying to find all of that information when I need to find it.


I like this one... Might be something to implement. Sure would be nice knowing which provider I am at.


----------



## ComputerTrophy (Aug 10, 2013)

wlanboy said:


> Looking forward to some new motd ideas.
> 
> My current motd:


Is there a way to get this on CentOS?


----------



## clarity (Aug 13, 2013)

wlanboy said:


> Looking forward to some new motd ideas.
> 
> My current motd:


Can you provide that code that you used to get this going? I would like to do something similar.


----------



## VPSCorey (Aug 14, 2013)

A little loud for my taste I just prefer the standard "GET OFF MY LAWN" style MOTD's.

However keep in mind if your MOTD's first word is "Welcome" good luck taking anyone who got caught hacking your server to court.


----------



## wlanboy (Aug 14, 2013)

dclardy said:


> Can you provide that code that you used to get this going? I would like to do something similar.


Yup. Three components:


update-motd

apt-get install update-motd

You can modify every part of the motd by editing the files in /etc/update-motd.d

toilet

apt-get install toilet


```
toilet -f pagga system
```
It is a small tool for ascii art.


Following fonts are currently supported: http://caca.zoy.org/browser/toilet/trunk/fonts

weather

apt-get install weather

It will display the current weather informations on a defined weather station.


weather -i ESSB

You can go to the webpage of NOAA to find your weather station of choice: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tg/siteloc.shtml


For the current system status I am using landscape-sysinfo from the package landscape-common:


#!/bin/sh
cores=$(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo 2>/dev/null)
[ "$cores" -eq "0" ] && cores=1
threshold="${cores:-1}.0"
if [ $(echo "`cut -f1 -d ' ' /proc/loadavg` < $threshold" | bc) -eq 1 ]; then
echo
echo -n " System information as of "
/bin/date
echo
/usr/bin/landscape-sysinfo
else
echo
echo " System information disabled due to load higher than $threshold"
fi


You can check the user id too:


```
if (( $(id -u) == 0 ))
then
echo "welcome root"
fi
```


----------

