Howto: Remove Fortune messages in the Terminal

[Raydog]

Open a terminal and type the following:

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/bash.bashrc

in the end of the file, comment out/remove the line /usr/bin/mint-fortune, and then save the file. Open a new terminal and you should no longer see that line.

Thanks vincent, that woked for me.

Edit-I just read the rest of this topic and I guess I had better thank clem as well for originally posting this hint.

[telic]

Why on Earth is this sophomoric preference (still) a default for Mint users? Should it caution me to think twice about entrusting my enterprise environment to a collegiate OS mindset?

You might want to open up Package Manager and install a sense of humor.

Would that be in the same repository as your Mushroom_Kingdom.so driver?

A plaything OS is okay at home -- but for my non-beatnik clients, Ubuntu "represents."

[JoeInMN]

Commenting out the code line is easy enough for most of us, but Profile Preferences really should have a "Show fortunes" tickbox on the General tab.

[jesica]

thanks for the info

[LindseyD.]

I've never touched my bashrc, but I don't have anything about fortune in it. And, needless to say, no cow and no fortunes.

And I miss them

Could someone please post the first few lines before (and maybe after?) the appropriate line so that I don't screw up putting the line in?

[Edgpaez]

Commenting out the code line is easy enough for most of us, but Profile Preferences really should have a "Show fortunes" tickbox on the General tab.

+1!
I love those fortune messages, but I've seen people who doesn't agree...
a click and change would be pretty good thing to add

[wayne128]

I've never touched my bashrc, but I don't have anything about fortune in it. And, needless to say, no cow and no fortunes.

And I miss them

Could someone please post the first few lines before (and maybe after?) the appropriate line so that I don't screw up putting the line in?

that line is the last line,, here are those lines just before

# enable bash completion in interactive shells
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
. /etc/bash_completion
fi

# if the command-not-found package is installed, use it
if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found ]; then
function command_not_found_handle {
# check because c-n-f could've been removed in the meantime
if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found ]; then
/usr/bin/python /usr/lib/command-not-found -- $1
return $?
else
return 127
fi
}
fi

/usr/bin/mint-fortune

[LindseyD.]

Thanks, wayne128. I was 99.9% sure what to do, but bashrc is NOT something I'd want to mess up. Belt & suspenders for me all the way.

[grey1960envoy]

In LMDE to remove the fortunes just type "gksudo gedit /etc/bash.bashrc" and remove the last "paragraph" to fi, save and close.

[Boringbytes]

Can you replace the default fortunes with a custom file?
I like most of the fortunes, but sometimes you just feel like a change.

[vincent]

Add any fortunes you want into /usr/share/games/fortunes/, and look at the existing fortunes in there to have an idea of how to format your own fortunes.

[jwalkin]

There is no mint-fortune line in .bash_rc for mint 10 kde. I use the gnome version mostly and I disable it in gnome all the time. I was just trying out kde and can't find where it is hidden. Looked under /etc/profile, bash_completion, bash.rc and there is no reference to mint-fortune in any of the files. any clues here? Testing kde for our company and need to disable it.

[richyrich]

The easy way, open a terminal and copy/paste. or click the SELECT ALL, or type this command :

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touch .disable-mint-fortunes

regards,

[jwalkin]

thanks richyrich. created empty file in home directory and it did not work, opened /usr/bin/mint-fortune wih nano as superuser and the last line pipes your fortune to your terminal. commented it out and restarted terminal. fortune is disabled. don't know why they took it out of bashrc in KDE.

[georgezilla]

Actually I'm using LM 10 and that line is nowhere in the relevant file. But there is ......

" .. # /usr/bin/mint-fortune ... "

Which appears to be the equal of what was suggested, so I commented it out. My problem was/is not on the "how" but on the here of the relevent file. Just couldn't find it anywhere.

So in LM 10, comment out that line and it goes away.

In answer to "Who hates animals"? I for one don't. I try to eat as many of them as I can every day. I just don't like them popping up and making silly remarks in my terminal.

So thank you for your help.

[Forthright]

Why on Earth is this sophomoric preference (still) a default for Mint users? Should it caution me to think twice about entrusting my enterprise environment to a collegiate OS mindset?

A very valid point here, the very fact that putting fortunes in has spawned a thread on how to remove them is a strong indicator in itself.

Fortunes do nothing to increase the functionality of a terminal, or increase workflow, and some of us (myself included) just find them irritating.

Of course, I believe in choice. But in this case I'd strongly suggest this as being a case of opt-in rather than opt-out so as not to irritate some users

[RSimpson]

I'm sure Mint used to ask whether you wanted them or not... I think the check mark was ticked by default, but it was easy to say "no". Personally, I'd love to see them on a startup or login screen, but not every time I bring up a terminal.

[steogede]

You can also disable this for a single user using gconf:

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gconftool-2 --type bool /
  --set /desktop/linuxmint/terminal/show_fortunes false


Or set the default for users who don't have a setting for this yet (e.g. root, future users):

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sudo gconftool-2 --direct /
  --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults /
  --type bool /
  --set /desktop/linuxmint/terminal/show_fortunes false


Or you can use the GUI tool gconf-editor.

NB. I have only tried this in LM 11 (that is the only LM I have ever used).

BTW, I don't mind the fortunes myself but I'm not a big fan of the Husse ones (it appears mostly to be direct quotes from his forum posts) - I'm not a big fan of these fortunes, they seem to be direct quotes from his forum posts and many of them appear pointless out of context (I suspect they are just there as a posthumous tribute?). What I don't understand is why there are 8 packages which depend on fortunes-husse - that is, so far as the package manager is concerned, I can't see any real dependency.

[subeh.sharma]

"/usr/bin/mint-fortune" to be removed in you're on LM11.

[RubberSoul]

Thanks for that mate... was starting to annoy me every time I opened the terminal.
Sorted now though