Ubuntu 22.04 – Change what is displayed at Login shell / Message of the Day
2 minute read
You can customize the CLI login shell of Ubuntu (e.g., 22.04) by updating the motd (message of the day) file. MOTD` is a simple text file in a Linux/Debian-based system that is used to display some custom text message on login using the command line, locally or via SSH.
- You can add your ASCII art /custom text –
- either in
/etc/motdfile, - or add a script in
/etc/update-motd.d/directory. For instance,00-headerfile containing your text.
- either in
- You may need to reboot (!)
- It is just a normal text file, but it accepts a good number of escape sequences:
| Escape character | Description |
| :- | :- |
| \b | Baud rate (the rate at which information is transferred in a communication channel) of the current line |
| \d| Current date|
| \s | System name, the name of the operating system |
| \l | Name of the current tty line |
| \m | Architecture identifier of the machine, eg. i486 |
| \n | Node name of the machine, also known as the hostname |
| \o | Domain name of the machine |
| \r | Release number of the OS, eg. 1.1.9 |
| \t | Current time |
| \u | Number of current users logged in |
| \U | The string 1 user or x users where x is the number of current users logged in |
| \v | Version of the OS, eg. the build-date etc. |
- You can also add command like
banner " gpux4to create something like this:
#
#### ##### # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # ## #######
# ### ##### # # ## #
# # # # # # # #
#### # #### # # #
- Finally, this was the content from my server at
/etc/update-motd.d/00-header:
echo "##########################################################################";
banner " gpux4 "
echo "##########################################################################";
[ -r /etc/lsb-release ] && . /etc/lsb-release
if [ -z "$DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION" ] && [ -x /usr/bin/lsb_release ]; then
# Fall back to using the very slow lsb_release utility
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=$(lsb_release -s -d)
fi
printf "Welcome to %s (%s %s %s)\n" "$DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION" "$(uname -o)" "$(uname -r)" "$(uname -m)"