For a couple of days now, sometimes when I want to login on my Mandrake 9.1 server, it has a message for me: next to the login prompt, where i should type my username, it says "hi there!!!".

Note that security, when installing Mandrake, was set to average. In fromt of the Mandrake server is a Multitech router/VPN/firewall box.

I searched all the forums and I checked google, but I see no reference to the "hi there!!!" message behind the login prompt. Anyone that knows what is going on?

Ysbrand Galama, Netherlands.

If the 'hi there' appears before you enter your username and password, then check out the file(s) /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net

If it appears after you've actually logged in, then you want to look at /etc/bashrc, /etc/bash_profile, /home/yourname/.bashrc or /home/yourname/.bash_profile

Hope this helps.

No that's not it. /etc/issue and issue.net and all the .bashrc files are not at fault here. Let me clarify a bit in detail what I see. The login-screen is completely black, as usual, no X running. The top left says something like "Mandrake version bla bla etcetera", and then the next line says "login: ".

All very normal so far. Now, next to the login-prompt, where I should enter my username, it says "hi there!!!", and the cursor is behind the last exclamation mark. So I use the backspace to erase "hi there!!!", then I enter my username, password and everything works fine.

But who the hell typed "hi there!!!" in the first place? It was not me, not my wife, not my kids (they speak Dutch, not English).

Ysbrand Galama.

Ummm.. Password prompt field of the /etc/login.defs file? That'll do it on my system, if I should ever desire that....



-Jay

See /etc/motd
See also the system init scripts.. there was a line that resets /etc/motd

Nope, I have no /etc/motd and /etc/issue and /etc/login.defs are just the Mandrake defaults, nothing suspicious here. Init scripts look very normal, and system hardly ever reboots. Aargh!!!

If you can't beat them, join them....

Every time it says "Hi There!" you say back "Hey, what's up!"

Maybe try something like
find / -type f | xargs -ix strings -n 4 'x' | grep -ie "hi there"
If nothing shows up, boot a recue cdr/fd and try the same from there.

Tries the xargs-trick, but it replies:

xargs: unmatched single quote

I am unfamiliar with xargs so I am unsure whether I hit something or not. But you know what, let's just give up. I will wipe the machine, reinstall Mandrake, and also I'll kick out this Multitech-box and put my old firewall back in place with IpCop. Never had a problem with IpCop.

Thanks all for your interest and support, especially jayjwa who suggest to reply with "hey, what's up". I'll say "Hey what's up" and then rm -R *

Try /bin/login and see if you get a normal login or the hi there login. If you get the weird login you need to reinstall the login package util-linux-2.11x-3mdk

Have you looked in /etc/inittab where the getty's are setup?

They should look something like this:
# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

certain broadcast messages will appear where you're describing...

but "hi there!!!" isn't exactly a program output. Perhaps you've got an unauthorized user hanging out and doing fun things to your box?

Try chkrootkit maybe?

There are no other users, or maybe I should say, there should be no other users. I have a VPN to my company network, could be that some colleague is trying to make some fun, on the other hand these are all Windows-guys, they really don't know what to do unless they can click it. Anyway, I zapped my Mandrake and did a full reinstall, and let's see what happens next. Thanks everybody for the help.

Ysbrand Galama.