Comment 3 for bug 260443

Martin-

Notice that the init script sources /etc/default/update-motd, where it should obtain $FREQ_IN_MIN.

To change /etc/cron.d/update-motd, the administrator could either "dpkg-reconfigure update-motd", or edit /etc/default/update-motd directly (which is what the postinst script will affect).

The file, /etc/cron.d/update-motd has a note to that effect in it:

    # /etc/cron.d/update-motd: crontab fragment for update-motd
    #
    # THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED, DO NOT EDIT DIRECTLY.
    # To change, use:
    # dpkg-reconfigure update-motd
    #
    # This updates the /etc/motd with a concatenation of output from each
    # script in /etc/update-motd.d
    #
    # This file is automatically generated by /etc/init.d/update-motd, which
    # uses /usr/share/update-motd/update-motd.cron as a template.
    */10 * * * * root /usr/sbin/update-motd 2>/dev/null

Does that assuage your concerns at all?

:-Dustin