SLES15 /etc/issue file management

This document (000020529) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15

Situation

In SLES15, all Service Packs, the /etc/issue file is a symlink to /run/issue.
The symlink is created by the systemd "issue-generator" service:

systemctl status issue-generator.service

If changes are made directly to /etc/issue, they will be overwritten on the next system reboot.

Resolution

The text in /etc/issue:
"Welcome to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3  (x86_64) - Kernel \r (\l)."

comes from: /usr/lib/issue.d/10-SUSE
That file is owned by the "release" RPM: sles-release-15.3-55.4.1

SUSE does not recommend changing that file.

The best way to move forward is to create your own file in:
/etc/issue.d/

Based on the "issue.d" man page, man issue.d:
"Files in /etc/issue.d override files with the same name in /usr/lib/issue.d and /run/issue.d."

If you create the file:
/etc/issue.d/10-SUSE
it will override the default file "/usr/lib/issue.d/10-SUSE".

In addition, new files in /etc/issue.d/ will be appended with "10-SUSE" file and content of the files will be seen in /etc/issue and /run/issue.

In addition to the text mentioned above in the /etc/issue file, this text is also appended:
eth0: \4{eth0} \6{eth0}
This is created by the /usr/sbin/issue-generator script, when it is run by "udev".
When udev is ran it creates the file /run/issue.d/70-<interfacename>.conf

To remove this file and text, the recommended method is to edit the file:
/etc/sysconfig/issue-generator
And make sure that the regex in the variable there does not match any ethernet interface names on the system.

For example change the line to:
NETWORK_INTERFACE_REGEX="^[zz]"
Since there are generally no ethernet interfaces that start with "z" then this line won't match anything on the system and the 70-<interfacename>.conf text file with not be created.

An alternate option to disable the interface info from being added to /etc/issue is to mask the udev rule.
This command will disable the udev rule:
ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/90-issue-generator.rules

 

Additional Information

The RPM "hostinfo" installs a service called "hostinfo.sevice" that creates multiple files in /etc/issue.d that provide various info about the system. 
Examples of those files:
ls -la /etc/issue.d/
total 48
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 May 11 11:42 00-OS -> 80-hostinfo-00-space
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 108 Dec  9  2021 10-SUSE
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-00-space
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  62 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-01-distro
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  58 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-02-date
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  32 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-03-host
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-04-kernel
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 145 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-05-updates
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  89 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-06-network
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  84 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-07-memory
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  45 May 11 11:42 80-hostinfo-08-cpuload
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  20 May 11 11:42 90-OS -> 80-hostinfo-00-space

Example output of /etc/issue with this info installed:
cat /etc/issue


Welcome to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3  (x86_64) - Kernel \r (\l).

eth0: \4{eth0} \6{eth0}


eth0: \4{eth0} \6{eth0}

Distribution:             SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3
Current As Of:            Thu 11 May 2023 11:42:30 AM CDT
Hostname:                 s15s3
Kernel Version:           5.3.18-150300.59.106-default
 Architecture:            x86_64
 Installed:               Tue 03 Jan 2023 02:05:33 PM CST
 Status:                  Not Tainted
Last Installed Package:   Thu 11 May 2023 11:32:53 AM CDT
 Patches Needed:          85
 Security:                55
 3rd Party Packages:      19
Network Interfaces
 eth0:                    192.168.0.74/24 fe80::20c:29ff:fe6b:de26/64
Memory                    83% Available
 Total/Free/Avail:        2.7Gi/435Mi/2.2Gi
CPU Load Average:         0 (0%) with 1 CPUs

 

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

  • Document ID:000020529
  • Creation Date: 12-May-2023
  • Modified Date:16-May-2023
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications
    • SUSE Manager Server

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