# Console talks a lot.



## valsorym (Aug 5, 2011)

Hi all.
I work in the console. I rarely use GUI.
But I have another unsolved problem.

When I work on the console, the console prints the message:

```
Aug 5 12:46:35 ab last message repeated 4 times
Aug 5 12:49:07 ab last message repeated 20 times
Aug 5 13:07:34 ab last message repeated 19 times
```

These messages prevent me at work (for example in the editor)
How do I them off?


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## Beastie (Aug 5, 2011)

Check the line before these to know what the message was and stop the application from sending it by a) solving any possible problems or b) redirecting the output to /dev/null.

Or you could just press *Alt + F2* and use that virtual terminal instead.


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## valsorym (Aug 5, 2011)

Thanks.


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## Bunyan (Aug 5, 2011)

Beastie said:
			
		

> b) redirecting the output to /dev/null.


How to do that exactly, please?


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## SirDice (Aug 5, 2011)

Bunyan said:
			
		

> How to do that exactly, please?



You really should be familiar with redirection.

http://www.joabj.com/blog/?p=760


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## graudeejs (Aug 5, 2011)

I simply disable *ttyv0* in /etc/ttys
This way I'm forced to use other virtual terminals, that don't receive messages from kernel etc.


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## SirDice (Aug 5, 2011)

killasmurf86 said:
			
		

> I simply disable *ttyv0* in /etc/ttys
> This way I'm forced to use other virtual terminals, that don't receive messages from kernel etc.


Wouldn't it be simpler just to disable those messages in /etc/syslog.conf?


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## fonz (Aug 5, 2011)

I like to use a combination of the two: first I disable one or two virtual terminals in /etc/ttys and then I edit /etc/syslog.conf to have all messages sent only to those disabled terminals. I like to call them _"syslog dump channels"_ but I'm pretty sure that's not standard terminology.

Fonz


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## SirDice (Aug 5, 2011)

Why don't you simply send those messages to a logfile instead of the console?


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## fonz (Aug 5, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Why don't you simply send those messages to a logfile instead of the console?


Or both.

Fonz


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## graudeejs (Aug 5, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Wouldn't it be simpler just to disable those messages in /etc/syslog.conf?



I like them (normal messages) to show up on console, so I can peek at it, time to time.

Besides, it ain't that hard, you simply modify on *on* to *off*, and that's it (after reboot)


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## freethread (Aug 5, 2011)

I remember there was an option to set somewhere, on which virtual console redirect messages (normal and kernel). I tried a lot to find it again in the handbook with no success, probably I'm wrong.


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## fonz (Aug 5, 2011)

freethread said:
			
		

> I remember there was an option to set somewhere, on which virtual console redirect messages (normal and kernel).


That's in /etc/syslog.conf, see syslog.conf(5).

Fonz


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## Bunyan (Aug 5, 2011)

fonz said:
			
		

> That's in /etc/syslog.conf,
> Fonz



I changed */dev/console* to */dev/null* and finally I got rid of those 
annoying and useless messages generated by *hald*.
But still, there are such programs like *linux-opera* *azureus*
that throw a lot of debugging info at */dev/ttyv0*


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## valsorym (Aug 5, 2011)

Thank you all very much.


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## fonz (Aug 6, 2011)

Bunyan said:
			
		

> I changed */dev/console* to */dev/null*


Why on earth would you want to do that? Just remove the line for /dev/console altogether.

Fonz


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## Bunyan (Aug 6, 2011)

I just commented that line out. Thanks.


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## jrm@ (Aug 6, 2011)

This doesn't get rid of the messages (you've gotten lots of suggestions for doing that), but if you cut down the chatter to only important messages that you still what to see, you can hit C-l (Control plus the "L" key) to refresh the screen.  For example, if you are in your editor and the messages pop up, you can hit C-l and the screen will go back to the way it looked before the messages popped up.


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