Monday, April 20, 2009

Customized Welcome Banner in Ubuntu

Every time I connect to my Ubuntu server through putty, I get to see the default message which is kind of scary.
Here's the message that I get every time:

Linux trap 2.6.9-67.0.1.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Nov 30 11:51:05 EST 2007 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

Last login: Mon Aug 13 01:05:46 2007 from XX.XX.XX.XX

nix@trap:~$


Changing this message requires editing two different files. The first three sections can be modified by editing the following file:

/etc/motd


This file contains the linux build number as well as the Ubuntu warranty message. I don't find this particularly useful, so I removed all of it and replaced it with my own message.

To disable the last login message (which I don't recommend doing), you will need to edit the following file in sudo mode:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config


Find this line in the file and change the yes to no as shown:

PrintLastLog no


Now when you login, you'll get a blank prompt, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it because it's useful to see the last login to the system for security reasons. This is my prompt now:

This is development system.

Last login: Mon Apr 20 12:47:36 2009 from XX.XX.XX.XX
nix@trap:~$

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