[solved] xfce4-terminal spam after update to util-linux 2.25-3

Question

I use the setterm command inside a file in /etc/profile.d so that I can prevent the screen from blanking when using a console, along with a couple of other things.
After the latest update to util-linux (2.25-3), whenever I open xfce4-terminal these lines show up:
setterm: terminal xterm does not support --blength
setterm: terminal xterm does not support --bfreq
setterm: terminal xterm does not support --blank
[gilmoreja@JamesPC ~]$
Is there a better way to handle making sure setterm runs when a console is used, but not necessarily when a terminal is opened? Or is there some other way to solve this issue? There doesn't seem to be a switch for setterm for any kind of "quiet mode."
Last edited by gilmoreja (2014-08-06 18:36:28)

Answer 1

I think that the shell started in a console is a login shell, and it is not the case in a graphical terminal.
A login shell has a '-' at the start of $0; so you can test that and condition the execution of the setterm commands:
if [[ $0 == '-bash' ]]; then
setterm ...
setterm ...
fi