How set the Message of the Day (MOTD) as Ubuntu Server?

It looks like the /etc/update-motd.d directory can no longer have links to the scripts. (This happened to the Cronjob directories a number of release back, and is part of the security stuff I would guess).

If you list the directory (ls -l /etc/update-motd.d) you will see the following

50-landscape-sysinfo -> /usr/share/landscape/landscape-sysinfo.wrapper

If you want the System information back just copy the script into /etc/update-motd.d with the following command.

$ sudo cp /usr/share/landscape/landscape-sysinfo.wrapper /etc/update-motd.d/52-landscape-sysinfo

Note that when landscape fixes the problem you will get two copy of the script and then you can just delete the file.

The text displayed (Message of the Day, MOTD) is created by running in numerical order the scripts in /etc/update-motd.d and joining together the output. I'm not certain which package contains the difference between the server and desktop versions, but you should be able to edit those scripts, or add new ones to create whatever message you want.