fastmotd

Fast system information displayed at login (MOTD) for Linux servers.

What it shows

• OS, kernel, uptime, hostname, public IP
• Load average, memory, swap, disk usage (with progress bars)
• CPU, GPU, and disk temperatures (NVMe + HDD)
• Docker containers status
• Fail2ban status
• SSL certificate expiry
• Network interfaces traffic
• WiFi signal strength
• Logged in users, last login, process count

Configuration

Copy the example config to /etc/fastmotd.toml:

sudo cp fastmotd.toml /etc/fastmotd.toml

All sections are enabled by default. To disable a section, set it to false:

cert_path = "/path/to/cert.pem"
disk_paths = ["/", "/home", "/var"]

[sections]
docker = false
fail2ban = false
ssl_cert = false

If no config file exists, all sections are enabled with default values.

Requirements

• Go 1.24+
• Linux (reads from /proc, /sys)

Disk temperatures

NVMe — works out of the box, temperatures read via /sys/class/hwmon.

HDD (SATA) — requires kernel module drivetemp:

# load once
sudo modprobe drivetemp

# autoload on boot
echo drivetemp | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/drivetemp.conf

Docker status

Requires access to the Docker socket. Run fastmotd as a user in the docker group or as root.

Fail2ban status

Requires fail2ban-client to be available and the user to have permission to run it.

SSL certificate monitoring

Set cert_path in /etc/fastmotd.toml to your certificate file.

Build

make

Install

sudo make install

This installs:

• /usr/bin/fastmotd — the binary
• /etc/profile.d/fastmotd.sh — shell hook that runs fastmotd at login
• /etc/fastmotd.toml — configuration file

Manual run

fastmotd

Example output

kilogra@gridpoint6
──────────
OS:          ROSA Server
Kernel:      6.12.47-5-x86_64
Uptime:      2d 23h 20m
Hostname:    gridpoint6
Public IP:   192.168.1.120

Load:        ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 19%  0.79 / 0.82 / 0.77
Memory:      ███░░░░░░░░░░░░ 22%  6.9 GiB / 30.5 GiB
Swap:        ███░░░░░░░░░░░░ 23%  7.4 GiB / 32.0 GiB
/home:       ████████░░░░░░░ 55%  503.3 GiB / 914.3 GiB
CPU Temp:    56°C
Disk Temp:   Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB  45°C
Disk Temp:   ADATA LEGEND 710  29°C
Disk Temp:   TOSHIBA DT01ACA1 (sdb)  33°C
Disk Temp:   Hitachi HDS72101 (sda)  38°C

Docker:      [active]  6 running, 0 exited

Network:     wlan0  ↑ 983.1 GiB  ↓ 94.6 GiB
Users:       kilorga (1 active)
Last login:  kilogra from 172.22.2.68, Thu Mar 12 12:58
Processes:   718

Uninstall

sudo rm /usr/bin/fastmotd /etc/profile.d/fastmotd.sh /etc/fastmotd.toml