Configuring xinitrc to spawn virtual term and display MOTD on Debian Stretch

dracut · 08-23-2018, 08:50 PM

Hey guys,
was wondering if anyone knew how to configure xinitrc in such a way that I could display some sort of MOTD in a virtual terminal that is spawned when x11 is started. The use case here is to display a todo list in the terminal when I startup X11.

ondoho · 08-24-2018, 02:09 AM

https://wiki.debian.org/xinit?highlight=%28startx%29
why isn't /etc/motd sufficient?

dracut · 08-24-2018, 08:31 AM

What I actually meant by "virtual terminal" was "psuedo terminal". I was under the impression that when logging on through a virtual terminal (/dev/tty#) /etc/motd is read, however for any given psuedo terminal (/dev/pts/#) spawned under the virtual terminal /etc/motd
isn't read. I'm assuming rlogin reads from /etc/motd, which isn't called when spawning a new psuedo terminal.

I've tried to simulate some sort of MOTD within xinitrc by redirecting output to the appropriate /dev/pts/# but nothing shows up when done using xinitrc.

ondoho · 08-25-2018, 12:53 AM

so you want that motto of the day only once after logging into the graphic session?
why don't you just open a terminal that executes a script that prints that out?
via xinitrc, or via your window manager's / desktop environment's startup mechanism?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dracut

I've tried to simulate some sort of MOTD within xinitrc by redirecting output to the appropriate /dev/pts/# but nothing shows up when done using xinitrc.

show us.

dracut · 08-25-2018, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

so you want that motto of the day only once after logging into the graphic session?

Exactly, it would be shown in the first psuedo terminal (/dev/pts/0).

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

why don't you just open a terminal that executes a script that prints that out?
via xinitrc, or via your window manager's / desktop environment's startup mechanism?

This is what I am attempting to do, though I am not sure if I am doing it correctly.

Here are the relevant parts of my .xinitrc:

Code:

/usr/local/bin/st &   #term
motd="message"
exec dwm
echo "$motd" >> /dev/pts/0

ondoho · 08-26-2018, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dracut

Code:

/usr/local/bin/st &   #term
motd="message"
exec dwm
echo "$motd" >> /dev/pts/0

strange. can't work.

why not just:

Code:

/usr/local/bin/st -e sh -c "echo message;read" &
exec dwm

???
(i don't use st; this command works for urxvt though. also, isn't /usr/local/bin/ in your $PATH?)