diff --git a/libexec/rc/rc.conf b/libexec/rc/rc.conf
--- a/libexec/rc/rc.conf
+++ b/libexec/rc/rc.conf
@@ -672,7 +672,7 @@
 			# Note that setting securelevel to 0 will result
 			# in the system booting with securelevel set to 1, as
 			# init(8) will raise the level when rc(8) completes.
-update_motd="YES"	# update version info in /etc/motd (or NO)
+update_motd="YES"	# update version info in /var/run/motd (or NO)
 entropy_boot_file="/boot/entropy"	# Set to NO to disable very early
 			# (used at early boot time) entropy caching through reboots.
 entropy_file="/entropy"	# Set to NO to disable late (used when going multi-user)
diff --git a/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd b/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd
--- a/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd
+++ b/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd
@@ -54,5 +54,24 @@
 	check_startmsgs && echo '.'
 }
 
+motd_start_static()
+{
+	if [ ! -e "${TARGET}" ]; then
+		if [ -r "$COMPAT_MOTD" ]; then
+			install -C -o root -g wheel -m "${PERMS}" "$COMPAT_MOTD" "${TARGET}"
+		else
+			install -C -o root -g wheel -m "${PERMS}" "$TEMPLATE" "${TARGET}"
+		fi
+	fi
+}
+
 load_rc_config $name
+if ! checkyesno $rcvar
+then
+	case $1 in
+	start|faststart|forcestart|onestart|quietstart)
+		motd_start_static
+		;;
+	esac
+fi
 run_rc_command "$1"
diff --git a/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5 b/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5
--- a/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5
+++ b/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5
@@ -2345,12 +2345,12 @@
 .Pq Vt bool
 If set to
 .Dq Li YES ,
-.Pa /etc/motd
+.Pa /var/run/motd
 will be updated at boot time to reflect the kernel release
 being run.
 If set to
 .Dq Li NO ,
-.Pa /etc/motd
+.Pa /var/run/motd
 will not be updated.
 .It Va nfs_client_enable
 .Pq Vt bool