If you spend a lot of time working in the Ubuntu command line, you are undoubtedly familiar with the “Terminal Bell.” This is a sharp, synthetic beep that the terminal emits whenever you attempt an action that the system cannot execute. For example, if you press the Backspace key when there are no characters left to delete, or if you press Tab to autocomplete a file name when multiple options exist, the terminal will aggressively beep at you.
While this auditory feedback was useful on ancient mainframe computers that lacked graphical error messages, it is completely unnecessary on a modern desktop. If you are working in a quiet office or a library, that sudden, loud beep can be highly disruptive to both you and your coworkers. Fortunately, you can completely silence the terminal bell without muting your entire computer.
Disabling the Bell via the GNOME Terminal Preferences
If you are using the default terminal emulator provided by the standard Ubuntu desktop (GNOME Terminal), you can turn off the bell directly within its graphical settings.
- Open a new Terminal window (Ctrl + Alt + T).
- Click on the Hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner of the terminal window.
- Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
- A new settings window will open. In the left-hand sidebar, look under the Profiles section and click on your active profile (usually named Unnamed or Default).
- In the main panel, ensure you are on the Text tab.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the panel until you see a section labelled Sound.
- Uncheck the box labelled Terminal bell.
- Close the Preferences window.
The change takes effect immediately. You can test it by mashing the Backspace key on an empty command prompt; it should remain completely silent.
Disabling the Bell Globally (For All Emulators)
If you use a different terminal emulator (like Terminator, Guake, or Alacritty), or if you occasionally drop into the raw TTY consoles, the GNOME preferences will not help you. You must disable the bell at the core system level by modifying the input configuration file.
- Open a terminal window.
- You need to edit the global input configuration file. Type the following command and press Enter:
sudo nano /etc/inputrc - Type your administrator password when prompted.
- The nano text editor will open. Scroll through the file using the down arrow key.
- Look for a line that says:
# set bell-style none - The hash symbol (
#) means the line is “commented out” and ignored by the system. Use your keyboard to delete the#and the space after it, so the line reads exactly:set bell-style none - Save the file by pressing Ctrl + O and then Enter.
- Exit the editor by pressing Ctrl + X.
You will need to completely log out of your Ubuntu user account and log back in (or reboot the computer) for this global change to take effect across all terminal applications.