It looks like that also skips displaying /etc/motd. If you just want to skip regenerating /var/run/motd, you have to blow away /etc/update-motd.d but continue r

It looks like that also skips displaying /etc/motd. If you just want to skip regenerating /var/run/motd, you have to blow away /etc/update-motd.d but continue running pam_motd.so because it's bizarrely responsible for both.