Stop Kernel Messages Showing In Console

When working on a Linux box, it can be annoying if kernel messages keep polluting your screen, so that you can't run your commands to diagnose the system. This is often things like the network port entering promiscuous mode if you are running virtual machines.

To stop the messages appearing in the console, we just need to uncomment the kernel.printk line as stated in the /etc/sysctl.conf file:

# Uncomment the following to stop low-level messages on console
#kernel.printk = 3 4 1 3

... and then run the command to apply the changes:

sudo sysctl -p

Script

If you want, you can run the following script to to do all of this for you:

SEARCH="#kernel.printk ="
REPLACE="kernel.printk ="
FILEPATH="/etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo sed -i "s;$SEARCH;$REPLACE;" $FILEPATH

# Apply the changes
sudo sysctl -p

References

• How to stop kernel messages from flooding my console?