Error messages on the console screen

Debian console getting flooded with error messages and verbose warnings can be quite trying for anyone.

Previous versions Debian Reference (Section 8.6.8) used to provided a solution viz… Running “dmesg -n X” (where X is the error levels [1..7) to quiet on-screen error messages until next reboot. Or set KLOGD=”-c 3” in etc/init.d/klogd script and run /etc/init.d/klogd restart for more lasting effect.

David Clarke provides the new way of handling console errors nicely.

Add a single line is your /etc/sysctl.conf and upon every reboot the given values are set to the linux kernel printk() .

kernel.printk = 3 4 1 7

The four values we are setting in /proc/sys/kernel/printk stand for:

• console_loglevel – messages with a priority higher than this will be printed to the console

• default_message_loglevel – messages without an explicit priority will be printed with this priority

• minimum_console_loglevel – minimum (highest) value to which console_loglevel can be set

• default_console_loglevel – default value for console_loglevel

These values influence printk() behavior when printing or logging error messages. See syslog(2) for more info on the different loglevels. For more information on other /proc files is read LinuxInsight /Proc Documentation