dereenigne.org

When sysadmining a number Debian machines, you start to get sick of the default login message very quickly (and they all start to look the same too!):

Linux alpha 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Wed May 18 23:13:22 UTC 2011 x86_64

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

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.      
No mail.
Last login: Sat Jun 25 12:23:15 2011 from localhost
root@alpha:~#

I discovered figlet the other day which allows you to create your own ASCII art words.

figlet -f smslant alpha > /etc/motd.tail

You can experiment with various figlet fonts using the -f argument. Once happy, save the output in /etc/motd.tail where it will be used to regenerate the message of the day each day.

Linux alpha 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Wed May 18 23:13:22 UTC 2011 x86_64
       __     __       
 ___ _/ /__  / /  ___ _
/ _ `/ / _ \/ _ \/ _ `/
\_,_/_/ .__/_//_/\_,_/ 
     /_/               
No mail.
Last login: Sat Jun 25 12:23:15 2011 from localhost
root@alpha:~#