Tips&Tricks Of messages,walls, and KDE

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bradenm

Frequent user

Joined: 01 May 2002

Posts: 69

Location: Kelowna, BC, Canada

 

Post Posted: Mon May 27, 2002 8:21 pm Post subject: Of messages,walls, and KDE

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Here is something that I learned/figured out today today:

 

Message of the Day

Linux has a feature called the "Message Of The Day" (motd). Whenever someone logs in, this message will be displayed on the screen. Examples are "The system will be down for maintenance today from 3:00-4:00. Thanks for your patience.", or "please remember to delete all of your old unwanted files today, before the backup at 10 PM." To set the message, edit /etc/motd as root. If the file is blank, no message will be displayed.

 

motd and KDE

However, the motd will only be displayed on consoles; logging into KDE will not show anything. Here's how to change that:

 

1) Open konqueror as root. (kdesu konqueror)

2) Browse to /usr/share/autostart

3) Right-click > Create New > Link to application. Name it "motd.desktop". Click on the "Execute" tab. Set the command to: bash -c "gmessage -center `cat /etc/motd`" . Click on the "Permissions" tab. Enable the "read" permission for "others". Click OK.

4) Now, if /etc/motd isn't blank, anyone logging into KDE will see the motd.

 

How to send messages to other users

To send a message to other users on the computer, type wall. Type your message (up to 20 lines), then press CTRL-D. Everyone on the computer at that moment will recieve the message. If you prefer not to recieve messages, run the command mesg n from the terminal you are currently logged in on.

 

 

Doggy

Frequent user

Joined: 03 May 2002

Posts: 33

Location: Aberdeen UK

Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2002 10:29 am Post subject:

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Hi,

 

I've followed your advice on this and all is well. However, to get the motd up it may be good to run gmessage from the startkde script in place of ksplash to avoid it's crash.

 

In any case, would this not be the best place to kick off the motd.

 

Hell, why not help kde to add the motd display functionality to ksplash itself - catch the attention of the user as they enter the environment.

 

 

 

Editor's note: This thread was originally posted at the old MUB (Mandrake User Board at club-nihil). This post is the result of a 99% automatic backup, so due to its nature some text may be lost (improbable but possible).