How to clear Ubuntu notifications?

Question

Is there a way to clear the pop up notifications I get from changing the volume, brightness, dropbox updates, etc...?

Sometimes I have to sit and wait for them to go away so that I can continue to work, as they are blocking something I want to click or look at.

I know this question might seem a little naggy but it does indeed lower my productivity sometimes. I don't mind getting the notifications, but I do mind not having a option to clear them.

Any idea how I can do that?

I am using Ubuntu 11.10 (Gnome)

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited May 20 '13 at 01:13

13

Kill the notify-osd program. That'll stop it from notifying until you reboot.

edited May 20 '13 at 01:13

Raja G

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answered Nov 23 '12 at 18:32

Tom White

131

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 11 '17 at 18:59

10

The package responsible for displaying the notifications is notify-osd . You can remove it by opening up a terminal and running the following command:

sudo apt-get remove notify-osd

Fair warning: this will permanently disable all notifications.

If you later decide you want the notifications back, you can run the following command:

sudo apt-get install notify-osd

edited Mar 11 '17 at 18:59

Community

1

answered Nov 05 '11 at 18:22

Nathan Osman

32,495

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited May 29 '13 at 02:17

5

In Ubuntu 12.04, you can use NotifyOSDconfig as explained here:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:leolik/leolik
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:amandeepgrewal/notifyosdconfig
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install notifyosdconfig

Then you can run the program "NotifyOSD Configuration" from Dash Home. Select the option "Close Bubble on Click" and you are done :)

edited May 29 '13 at 02:17

Raja G

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answered May 19 '13 at 13:23

e18r

279

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 05 '11 at 18:59

First of all, the notifications are click-through, and should fade when you mouse over them, so they should not make you wait for clicking/seeing something below.

There is also the possibility to temporarily get no notifications except some specific ones like changing the audio volume. Applications like Totem use this while you are viewing a movie full-screen, for example.

But there is no way to "dismiss" them AFAIK.

(This all asumes you are using GNOME with Unity.)

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 25 '25 at 10:24

Following the help given in https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/shell-notifications.html.en, you may find a way to quickly clear notifications:

hit super + V to see the notification panel
either delete single notifications using the x icon or use the clear button at the bottom of the (maybe long) list

How to clear Ubuntu notifications?

5 Answers5