Bug 848895

Summary:	X server bell broken
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Chris Adams <linux>
Component:	xorg-x11-server	Assignee:	X/OpenGL Maintenance List <xgl-maint>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	unspecified	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	17	CC:	adam, peter.hutterer, prd-fedora, xgl-maint
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2013-02-06 22:40:47 UTC	Type:	Bug
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Chris Adams 2012-08-16 18:09:46 UTC

I installed F17 on a system and I cannot make the PC speaker work as the X "bell".  This worked fine in F16.

I commented out the snd_pcsp line in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, loaded the module, and restarted X.  I am running the XFCE desktop.  I then used "xset b on" and "xset b 100 523 75" to configure the X server bell.  I tried xterm, XFCE's Terminal (with the "hidden" option to enable beeps set), and xkbbell, but none will make a beep.

I know the X server knows how to beep because "xkbbell -force" does indeed beep (this XkbForceBell() instead of just XkbBell()).

Comment 1 Adam Benjamin 2013-02-05 02:26:58 UTC

I find it mind-numbing that this hasn't been fixed yet.

I can run "beep" as root and it works, but if I run it as myself it fails.  (Permission denied on /dev/console.  And an ioctl error if I manually change perms on /dev/console to allow all users access.)  And, similar to the original ticket owner, I can run xkbbell and it fails unless I run with -force.

I see a README.fedora as part of the "beep" package that suggests that this problem has been known awhile (the file's date is January 12th, 2012!!)

I know this is pretty archaic stuff as notifications go, but some of us very much rely upon it.  It's making me regret upgrading from F16 to F17.

And in 5 months of this ticket being open, it hasn't even been assigned?  Seriously... if I didn't need to run RHEL for my work, I'd be looking at other distributions. I know it's a minor thing, but it's stuff like this which has end users looking to other distributions.  I mean if we can't even make the console beep...

Let me know if I can aid in testing in any way.  And yes I'm sure pcspkr is loaded (as mentioned, running as root works.)

Thanks.

Comment 2 Peter Hutterer 2013-02-06 06:11:12 UTC

what's the output of xkbset q?

Comment 3 Adam Benjamin 2013-02-06 15:52:14 UTC

Well, huzzah!  I didn't know about xkbset - I only knew about xset.  Running "xkbset b" enabled the (disabled) audible bell, and all of a sudden I'm back to desired operation.  I'm glad the fix (at least for me) was trivially easy - I just had no idea such a tool existed.  (And I don't see the package in Fedora 16.)

So... a bit disappointing that the "default" changed (and I had no way of knowing I had to look in a new direction) but fabulous that it's a fast and easy change.  (My .xsession just grew by one command - and that's completely acceptable.)

Thanks for your help (and well placed question,) Peter.  I wonder if this will help the original post-er, Chris.

Thanks again,

Adam

Comment 4 Peter Hutterer 2013-02-06 22:40:47 UTC

Closing as NOTABUG, this is a configuration issue.

Not sure why this would've changed though, this code hasn't moved much in ages. I wonder if the desktop environment is enabling/disabling XKB features.

Comment 5 Chris Adams 2013-02-07 11:48:00 UTC

I had been using xset to enable and adjust the bell, and that worked in F16/XFCE.  When I switched to F17/XFCE, it quit working (no error, just no bell).  Using xkbset to enable the bell works.  Hurray for progress...