Changing The MOTD

ByMike Moffit

GEEKY WARNING! This article is not for the faint of heart. I’ll be using terminal and the “dreaded” command line. I just thought I would share it for those people who do use Terminal, those would probably be systems administrators or those savvy OS X/Unix users.

This little article is going to let you display a welcoming message to anyone who logs into your computer via SSH (secure shell). Currently the message is set to something For people who runs servers you could put up a message like:

This computer system is for authorized users only. All activity is logged and regulary checked by systems personal. Individuals using this system without authority or in excess of their authority are subject to having all their services revoked. Any illegal services run by user or attempts to take down this server or its services will be reported to local law enforcement, and said user will be punished to the full extent of the law. Anyone using this system consents to these terms.

For a home user you could write something like:

Welcome back, have fun today!!

First, go into your Utilities folder (Applications—> Utilities) and find the program called Terminal. Open it up! Type in su your admin username. You’ll be prompted for your admin password which you’ll want to type in and hit enter. When you type the password nothing will appear which is fine. That’s just a security feature. Now you’l be logged in as the admin. Now type in sudo nano -w /etc/motd. Now if you’re wondering what that command does, sudo means you want to run the following command as an admin user, nano is a command line text editor, -w mean you want to write and /etc/motd is the file you want to edit. So here you can see we’re going to edit the motd file, being message of the day.

You’ll notice the terminal screen changes and now you can type your message in. When you’ve typed in your message hit, Ctrl+O which saves the message and then hit Ctrl+X. This will exit you from nano and back to the normal Terminal screen. You can then exit out of Terminal and then re-open it. This time you should notice your new welcome message being displayed!

Similar Posts

  • Maximize Your Apple Laptop's Battery

    Here are some tips to help you get the most from your Apple laptop’s battery. – Fully charge your portable when you plug…

  • Dozens of Ways to Charge an iPod

    This morning, while scanning Digg.com, I noticed an interesting post about the many, many ways it’s possible to charge an iPod without a…

  • On the iPhoto File Structure

    I could condense all my iPhoto wisdom in one sentence: for your own benefit, please never, ever open the iPhoto folder library folder…

  • Take the Thom Hartmann Show With You

    UPDATE: Find our Thom Hartmann Podcast Page here. It is now updated with both the iTunes Podcast and the direct KPOJ Podcast. Thanks…

  • De-authorize your iTunes Account Before Hardware Repair or Sale

    Pretty much everyone has downloaded media from the iTunes store, but not too many of us know just how iTunes keeps track of computer authorization. Every device on the internet has at least two unique identifiers: a MAC address and an IP address.

    MAC is an acronym for Media Access Control. Many believe that Mac, the abbreviation for Macintosh, should be written with capital letters – this is incorrect. Likewise, iPod – not iPOD or IPOD; iMac – not iMAC or IMAC; etc. Network interfaces have MAC addresses; Macintoshes can be called Macs.

    Since your MAC address is completely unique, it’s the ideal way for iTunes to know that you’re authorized to play purchased content on any given machines. Trouble is, your ethernet port is part of the main logic board, which requires replacement in some repairs. With a new main logic board comes a new MAC address, which confuses iTunes and some other, generally high-end, software.

    You’re allowed to authorize up to five computers at any one time to play your purchased content, but replacing your logic board changes the MAC address. If you didn’t de-authorize before repair, you’ve lost 20% of your available authorizations. I made this mistake a few years ago when I had to replace the logic board in a Mac Mini hooked up to my television, and when I sold my iBook. I also lost an authorization when my two-week-old PowerBook G4 flew off the roof of my car at highway speed. Thankfully, iTunes allows you to de-authorize all computers on your account once annually.

    I only have one Machine these days, a 17-inch MacBook Pro, so this hasn’t been a problem of late for me. It’s a common question asked our technical support team, and a good fix to file in your troubleshooting arsenal.

    The full details from Apple can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420