So much noise…
*BSD’s idea of motd(5) [“message of the day” you see upon login]: print the damn /etc/motd file
Ubuntu: pic.twitter.com/Q5oRR3JzZK
— Antonio Nikishaev (@lelff) December 27, 2019
Well, you can always edit /etc/default/motd-news file:
# Enable/disable the dynamic MOTD news service # This is a useful way to provide dynamic, informative # information pertinent to the users and administrators # of the local system ENABLED=1 # Configure the source of dynamic MOTD news # White space separated list of 0 to many news services # For security reasons, these must be https # and have a valid certificate # Canonical runs a service at motd.ubuntu.com, and you # can easily run one too URLS="https://motd.ubuntu.com" # Specify the time in seconds, you're willing to wait for # dynamic MOTD news # Note that news messages are fetched in the background by # a systemd timer, so this should never block boot or login WAIT=5
Just set ENABLED to 0.
Actually, this solution is pretty obvious — if the tweet author posted the very first lines of /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news code:
# Source the local configuration [ -r /etc/default/motd-news ] && . /etc/default/motd-news # Exit immediately, unless we're enabled # This makes this script very easy to disable in /etc/default/motd-news configuration [ "$ENABLED" = "1" ] || exit 0
Of course, a tweet with “shocking news” will get much more reactions 😉
motd-news author also explained this back in 2017.
Ubuntu’s Message of the Day