So, installing motd-news-config (e.g. after or independently from upgrading base-files) should always remove /e/d/motd-news.wasremoved if it is present? I don't think I'm seeing that though: root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# ll /etc/default/motd* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Sep 17 22:26 /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling More info: https://launchpad.net/~ahasenack/+archive/ubuntu/motd-news-wasremoved-handling Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it. Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling/ubuntu bionic InRelease [15.4 kB] Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease Get:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages [852 B] Get:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling/ubuntu bionic/main Translation-en [516 B] Fetched 16.8 kB in 1s (13.7 kB/s) Reading package lists... Done root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# apt-get update Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling/ubuntu bionic InRelease Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease Reading package lists... Done root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# apt-get install base-files Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: acpid bc bcache-tools btrfs-progs btrfs-tools byobu cloud-initramfs-copymods cloud-initramfs-dyn-netconf cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin dmeventd ethtool fonts-ubuntu-console htop landscape-common libdevmapper-event1.02.1 libevent-2.1-6 libisns0 liblvm2app2.2 liblvm2cmd2.02 libmspack0 libreadline5 libutempter0 libxmlsec1 libxmlsec1-openssl lvm2 mdadm open-iscsi open-vm-tools overlayroot pollinate python3-attr python3-automat python3-constantly python3-debconf python3-hyperlink python3-incremental python3-newt python3-pam python3-pyasn1-modules python3-service-identity python3-twisted python3-twisted-bin run-one screen sosreport tmux update-notifier-common xfsprogs zerofree Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be upgraded: base-files 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 87.9 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 base-files amd64 10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1 [87.9 kB] Fetched 87.9 kB in 1s (128 kB/s) (Reading database ... 71173 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../base-files_10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1_amd64.deb ... Warning: Stopping motd-news.service, but it can still be activated by: motd-news.timer Unpacking base-files (10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1) over (10.1ubuntu2.10) ... Setting up base-files (10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1) ... motd-news.service is a disabled or a static unit, not starting it. Processing triggers for plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text (0.9.3-1ubuntu7.18.04.2) ... update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated) Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ... Processing triggers for install-info (6.5.0.dfsg.1-2) ... Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.130ubuntu3.10) ... root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# !ll ll /etc/default/motd* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Sep 17 22:26 /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# apt-get install motd-news-config Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: acpid bc bcache-tools btrfs-progs btrfs-tools byobu cloud-initramfs-copymods cloud-initramfs-dyn-netconf cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin dmeventd ethtool fonts-ubuntu-console htop landscape-common libdevmapper-event1.02.1 libevent-2.1-6 libisns0 liblvm2app2.2 liblvm2cmd2.02 libmspack0 libreadline5 libutempter0 libxmlsec1 libxmlsec1-openssl lvm2 mdadm open-iscsi open-vm-tools overlayroot pollinate python3-attr python3-automat python3-constantly python3-debconf python3-hyperlink python3-incremental python3-newt python3-pam python3-pyasn1-modules python3-service-identity python3-twisted python3-twisted-bin run-one screen sosreport tmux update-notifier-common xfsprogs zerofree Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them. The following NEW packages will be installed: motd-news-config 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 31.7 kB of archives. After this operation, 43.0 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/motd-news-wasremoved-handling/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 motd-news-config all 10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1 [31.7 kB] Fetched 31.7 kB in 1s (50.3 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package motd-news-config. (Reading database ... 71173 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../motd-news-config_10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1_all.deb ... Unpacking motd-news-config (10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1) ... Setting up motd-news-config (10.1ubuntu2.11~ppa1) ... root@triage-bionic+18.04:~# ll /etc/default/motd* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 779 Sep 18 16:57 /etc/default/motd-news root@triage-bionic+18.04:~#