[Linux-users] System Bell/Notification

[C M Reinehr]

I'm having what, at first appearance, is a simple problem, but one that 
doesn't seem to have a simple answer--at least not one that I've been able to 
find and simple answers are my specialty. ;-)

Last week I completed a completely new installation of Debian Etch (stable) on 
a desktop PC. A critical application is rxvt, a terminal emulation program, 
which allows the user to connect to our accounting system which is written to 
use simple, dumb terminals for I/O. An important feature is the use of the 
system bell to notify the user of important events (of an accounting nature).

Well, everything on this new PC works, except the system bell. We use KDE and 
get all of the usual sounds when logged into a user session. KDE has a system 
of notifications which causes different sounds to be played to notify the 
user of different events and they work. All the other usual suspects work, 
mplayer, flash plugin, etc. Just not the system bell notification.

I'm pretty sure that it's not just a KDE configuration problem. I've been 
through all of the KDE configuration menus relating to sound, system bell & 
system notification, ad nauseam. What's more, if I switch to a virtual 
console it still doesn't work. And, finally, I booted into single user mode 
to be absolutely certain that nothing from KDE was causing the problem and it 
still didn't work.

The system uses ALSA and all of the components are installed. All of the 
kernel modules are installed (including pcspkr). It's a stock kernel. The 
system that I'm working on now, is virtually identical and the system bell 
works just fine. I've looked at /etc/modprobe.d, /etc/modutils.d, 
& /etc/modules.conf and can't see a problem (of course, I understand so 
little of all that, that it could be looking me in the face & I wouldn't 
recognize it.)

So, anybody got a clue? If not, my next resort will just be to carefully 
reinstall the whole damned system.

Thanks!

cmr
-- 
Debian 'Etch' - Registered Linux User #241964
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"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC