Mute the annoying bell sound in Linux

That Annoying Backspace Beep

You know the one. The terminal beep - that ear-piercing “BEEP!” that hits you like a sudden betrayal when you backspace one character too far. It’s called the “bell”, but honestly it sounds more like a horror jump-scare.

Lucky for us, there’s a clean and silent way to shut it up. Permanently. 🔪

🔇 Disable the Bell via ~/.inputrc

This method works like real magic, even in WSL2 or pure Ubuntu setups. Here’s how to exorcise that beep:

1. Open your inputrc file:

   nano ~/.inputrc
   

2. Add this line to the bottom:

   set bell-style none
   

3. Save and exit.
   • Ctrl + O → Enter to save
   • Ctrl + X to exit

4. Reload the config:

   bind -f ~/.inputrc
   

And that’s it. The beast is dead. 🪦

Note: This will mute the bell sound for Bash sessions. It works perfectly on WSL2, Ubuntu, and other Debian-based distros. For Zsh users, you might want to do something similar in your .zshrc.