nothing@nowhere - 2021-05-28

Colored MOTDs Setup

In this tutorial we're going to take a look at how to setup a colorful MOTD anytime you wish to ssh into your machines

Initial Setup

First install the required dependencies:

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/22 ] [~]
→ sudo apt install imagemagick openjdk-17-jdk coreutils perl git
	

Then clone the Util-Say repository:

git clone https://github.com/maandree/util-say
	
[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools]
→ git clone https://github.com/maandree/util-say
Cloning into 'util-say'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 2216, done.
remote: Total 2216 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 2216
Receiving objects: 100% (2216/2216), 700.67 KiB | 1.67 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (854/854), done.

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools]
→ cd util-say

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools/util-say]
→ make

#you need to type make in order to generate the util-say.jar file that the scripts are using.
 
[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools/util-say]
→ ls -lash img2ponysay
4.0K -rwxr-xr-x 1 nothing nothing 582 May 28 16:20 img2ponysay
	

here the file we're looking for is called img2ponysay

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools/util-say]
→ cat img2ponysay
#!/usr/bin/env bash

magnified='1'
file='-'
dash=0
chroma=1
c=0
platform=xterm

for arg in "$@"; do
    if [ $c = 1 ]; then
        c=0
        chroma="$arg"
    elif [ $dash = 1 ]; then
        file="$arg"
    elif [ "$arg" = "--" ]; then
        dash=1
    elif [ "$arg" = "-2" ]; then
        magnified=2
    elif [ "$arg" = "-c" ]; then
        c=1
    elif [ "$arg" = "-p" ]; then
        platform=linux
    else
        file="$arg"
    fi
done

java -jar "$(dirname "$0")/util-say.jar" \
--import image --magnified $magnified --file "$file" --balloon n --export ponysay --balloon y --file - --chroma "$chroma" --platform $platform	

Next we're going to use a relatively small image to convert to our motd:

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools/util-say]
→ ./img2ponysay -- ~/Pictures/smallzero.png > motd.txt
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=on -Dswing.aatext=true

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools/util-say]
→ cat motd.txt

As you can see, a tiny image can make a very large motd, and you need to be careful of the size of the image you choose to put as your MOTD:

[ 10.10.14.13/23 ] [ /dev/pts/26 ] [~/Tools/util-say]
→ cp motd.txt /etc/motd