I ignored this for a while, and just dealt with the “updates available” icon always being in the notification area. I tried searching google several times, and eventually came across this forum post, which led to this article containing the answer I was looking for.

I could probably just pin gnome-terminal, but I want to make sure I get any future updates for it. I decided the easiest way to fix this annoyance was by appending a short string (+noblink) to the version.

First, fetch the source and update the version:

$ apt-get source gnome-terminal
$ cd gnome-terminal-2.22.1
$ debchange -v 2.22.1-0ubuntu2+noblink

At this point, the default editor will open the debian/changelog file so you can describe the change. Enter a short comment, like “disable the blinkin cursor”, save the file and exit the editor.

Next, patch the source. Jay Cornwall’s patch is not currently on-line, but it’s a simple fix: just edit src/terminal-screen.c and change this line

terminal_widget_set_cursor_blinks (screen->priv->term, blink);

to this

terminal_widget_set_cursor_blinks (screen->priv->term, FALSE);

Finally, build and install the package:

$ debuild -rfakeroot binary
$ sudo dpkg -i ../gnome-terminal*.deb