no beep any more

[Matthias Apitz]

Hello,

Yesterday I realized that my Acer C720 does not issue any beep, for
example in terminals or on alpha console with 'printf "\7"'
The sound general is working, for example playing something with mplayer
or the jingle on KDE start. I'm not aware of having installed something
during the last days. Is this somehow configureable with sysctl?

$ kbdcontrol -b normal

does not help.

ANy ideas?

matthias

[Eduardo Morras via freebsd-questions]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2016 13:48:46 +0200

Post by Matthias Apitz
Hello,
Yesterday I realized that my Acer C720 does not issue any beep, for
example in terminals or on alpha console with 'printf "\7"'
The sound general is working, for example playing something with
mplayer or the jingle on KDE start. I'm not aware of having installed
something during the last days. Is this somehow configureable with
sysctl?
$ kbdcontrol -b normal
does not help.
ANy ideas?

What's the output of

%mixer speaker

Beeps don't use pcm.

Some audio and video players modify mixer values directly to control volume, instead using alsa/oss/pulse calls. Perhaps you used one of them.

Anything weird on dmesg -a output?

As a workaround, if you are using xterm under X, Ctrl+MIddle Mouse button shows a menu where you can enable visual beep. Other terminals could have similar mode.


--- ---
Eduardo Morras <***@yahoo.es>

[Bernt Hansson]

Post by Matthias Apitz
Hello,
Yesterday I realized that my Acer C720 does not issue any beep, for
example in terminals or on alpha console with 'printf "\7"'
The sound general is working, for example playing something with mplayer
or the jingle on KDE start. I'm not aware of having installed something
during the last days. Is this somehow configureable with sysctl?
$ kbdcontrol -b normal
does not help.
ANy ideas?
matthias

usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
To turn bell off:
-b b off b 0
To set bell volume, pitch and duration:
b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Bernt Hansson
usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
-b b off b 0
b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on

Thanks, I know this. It must be deeper in the kernel because it is not
beeping on alpha consoles either.

# sysctl hw | grep bell
hw.syscons.bell: 1

Is fine but does not help.

matthias

[Ben Woods]

El día Tuesday, July 26, 2016 a las 03:08:44PM +0200, Bernt Hansson

Post by Bernt Hansson
usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
-b b off b 0
b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on

Thanks, I know this. It must be deeper in the kernel because it is not
beeping on alpha consoles either.
# sysctl hw | grep bell
hw.syscons.bell: 1
Is fine but does not help.
matthias

If you are using the new vt(4), make sure you have the follow sysctl set:
kern.vt.enable_bell=1

Regards,
Ben

--
From: Benjamin Woods
***@gmail.com

[Bertram Scharpf]

Post by Matthias Apitz
Yesterday I realized that my Acer C720 does not issue any beep, for
example in terminals or on alpha console with 'printf "\7"'
The sound general is working, for example playing something with mplayer
or the jingle on KDE start.

Does the speaker device make any noise?

# kldload speaker
# echo cdefgec >/dev/speaker

Bertram

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Ben Woods
kern.vt.enable_bell=1

After boot I have:

$ sysctl -a | fgrep bell
kern.vt.enable_bell: 1
hw.syscons.bell: 1
you have mail
$ sysctl -a | fgrep beep
debug.acpi.resume_beep: 0
+ [DISABLED] <- nid=29 [beep widget]
+ [DISABLED] <- nid=29 [beep widget]
dev.hdaa.1.nid29: beep widget
+ <- nid=29 [beep widget]

I have no clue what the 'DISABLED' could mean. I will check a second
Acer C720 I own which still does beep.

Btw: I does not seem to be a hardware fault because when I press
space bar on the coreboot splash screen (which complains about not seeing
the ChromeOS) it does beep as it did always.

Thanks for all spending time in this.

matthias

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Bertram Scharpf

Post by Matthias Apitz
Yesterday I realized that my Acer C720 does not issue any beep, for
example in terminals or on alpha console with 'printf "\7"'
The sound general is working, for example playing something with mplayer
or the jingle on KDE start.

Does the speaker device make any noise?
# kldload speaker
# echo cdefgec >/dev/speaker

no, does not make any noise;

matthias

[Matthias Apitz]

Yeah. Get down on your hands and knees and pray hard that it stays that way.

In general, I'm with you. But I do not like the idea that something
switched it off *without* my knowledge/permission/willing.

matthias

[Frank Shute]

Post by Matthias Apitz
Hello,
Yesterday I realized that my Acer C720 does not issue any beep, for
example in terminals or on alpha console with 'printf "\7"'
The sound general is working, for example playing something with mplayer
or the jingle on KDE start. I'm not aware of having installed something
during the last days. Is this somehow configureable with sysctl?
$ kbdcontrol -b normal
does not help.
ANy ideas?

Yeah. Get down on your hands and knees and pray hard that it stays that way.

To be serious, I turn it off wherever it might possibly rear it's ugly head.
So ~/.Xdefaults:

XTerm*visualBell: true

vim/gvim in ~/.vimrc:

set vb " visualbell

The idea of my DE/WM playing a jingle on start-up is enough to send a shudder
down my spine :(

Blinkenlights? Yes. Noises? Hell, no.

Sorry, I've probably been of no help to you Matthias but hopefully I've been
of some help to my fellow travellers in the anti-noise camp.


Regards,

[twilight]

Yeah. Get down on your hands and knees and pray hard that it stays that way.
The idea of my DE/WM playing a jingle on start-up is enough to send a shudder
down my spine :(

Lol.

It always invigorates me better that a cup of coffee when I'm setuping
the system in the tty and accidentally press <Tab>, but there are no
possible completions or <Backspace> on empty string. UGH!

Visual bell should be enabled be default, I think.

[Warren Block]

Post by Matthias Apitz

Yeah. Get down on your hands and knees and pray hard that it stays that way.

In general, I'm with you. But I do not like the idea that something
switched it off *without* my knowledge/permission/willing.

I think it's more likely that the Chromebook has been cost-reduced to
not have a hardware beeper.

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Warren Block
I think it's more likely that the Chromebook has been cost-reduced to
not have a hardware beeper.

I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.

matthias

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Warren Block
I think it's more likely that the Chromebook has been cost-reduced to
not have a hardware beeper.

I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.

Ok. To bring a bit structure in the problem hunting, I will

a) concentrate first on the C720 which still beeps (to eliminate the
risk that the other has a hardware issue)

b) let away X11, and use as test cases only:
1. it should beep on key backspace while cursor is on prompt
2. it should beep on a second ESC in editor vi
3. it should beep on the shell command: printf "\7"

The C720 in question runs r292778 and beeps fine in test cases 1, 2 and 3.

I produced an USB stick with a bootable system from CURRENT of tonight,
r303343, with the exact same configuration:

kernel GENERIC
same /boot/loader.conf
same /boot/device.hints
same /etc/rc.conf

The r303343 does fail on the above test cases on the same hardware. Why?

matthias

[Ian Smith]

In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 634, Issue 3, Message: 21

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Warren Block
I think it's more likely that the Chromebook has been cost-reduced to
not have a hardware beeper.

I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.

I've been following this thread with interest.

Post by Matthias Apitz
1. it should beep on key backspace while cursor is on prompt
2. it should beep on a second ESC in editor vi
3. it should beep on the shell command: printf "\7"

I don't use vi, but 1 and 3 work here fine both from a VT and within
KDE, however I have KDE send 'beep' notifications rather than speaker.

You seem to assume that something's broken in FreeBSD - which may be the
case - but it's also possible that the speaker hardware on the non-
beeping one is just broken, especially as device speaker didn't work.

Usually the hardware for these in laptops is a simple piezo speaker,
commonly with red and blue wires, likely driven by a single TTL or CMOS
buffer. While piezo speakers are pretty hard (but not impossible) to
destroy, I've had a laptop where one wire has become detached, so if
it's not too hard to get in there to check, that may be worthwhile .. if
so it's likely a simple fix, either by soldering or replacement.

Another possibility is that it's (become?) disabled in BIOS settings?

To confirm it isn't (or is) a FreeBSD problem, try booting from an older
version memstick in 'live CD' mode, from where a simple backspace at the
console prompt should quickly confirm that, one way or t'other.

cheers, Ian

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Ian Smith
In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 634, Issue 3, Message: 21

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Warren Block
I think it's more likely that the Chromebook has been cost-reduced to
not have a hardware beeper.

I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.

I've been following this thread with interest.

Hi Ian,

This is nice that you say this, really! The problem started some days
ago on the C720 I'm using 7*24 and where I'm typing right now. It could
really be the fact that this C720 has a hardware or BIOS issue. But the
other C720 my son is using, running the same FreeBSD r292778 is beeping
fine but is not beeping when I boot a new USB stick with r303343.
That's why I wanted first concentrate on this C720 to learn what the nature
of the issue or configuration is on this and I wrote in the mail from
where you have copied the part b) as well:

...
a) concentrate first on the C720 which still beeps (to eliminate the
risk that the other has a hardware issue)

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz
1. it should beep on key backspace while cursor is on prompt
2. it should beep on a second ESC in editor vi
3. it should beep on the shell command: printf "\7"

I don't use vi, but 1 and 3 work here fine both from a VT and within
KDE, however I have KDE send 'beep' notifications rather than speaker.
You seem to assume that something's broken in FreeBSD - which may be the
case - but it's also possible that the speaker hardware on the non-
beeping one is just broken, especially as device speaker didn't work.

Yes, from the fact "r292778 beeps, while r303343 does not on the same
hardware and the same BIOS" I think that either there is some config
problem or "a moving target", i.e. some random bug;

Post by Ian Smith
Usually the hardware for these in laptops is a simple piezo speaker,
commonly with red and blue wires, likely driven by a single TTL or CMOS
buffer. While piezo speakers are pretty hard (but not impossible) to
destroy, I've had a laptop where one wire has become detached, so if
it's not too hard to get in there to check, that may be worthwhile .. if
so it's likely a simple fix, either by soldering or replacement.
Another possibility is that it's (become?) disabled in BIOS settings?

If it comes to the so called BIOS settings, these Chromebooks has no
settings menu. The hardware boots some 'coreboot' software which has as
a payload a SeaBIOS and the only option you have is select the boot
device if there are more than one.

So, back to the above question: why the beast is beeping with r292778
and not with r303343? Maybe the answer to this will later explain why
the other C720 is not beeping at all at the moment, not with r292778 and
not with r303343...

In any case I will open my C720 and look for the red/blue wires, if they
are not below the motherboard :-(

Thanks for following me in any case!

matthias

[Ian Smith]

In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 634, Issue 5, Message: 6
[..]

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz
I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.

I've been following this thread with interest.

Hi Ian,
This is nice that you say this, really!

I was surprised it was still a mystery .. but I'm still struggling to
put a complete picture together re the working / non-working machines,
and/or FreeBSD revisions.

And I only just noticed 'only in the coreboot splash screen'; see below.

Post by Matthias Apitz
The problem started some days
ago on the C720 I'm using 7*24 and where I'm typing right now. It could
really be the fact that this C720 has a hardware or BIOS issue. But the
other C720 my son is using, running the same FreeBSD r292778 is beeping
fine but is not beeping when I boot a new USB stick with r303343.

What's uname -a on r292778? Since losing access to svnweb.freebsd.org I
can't readily see what's what from just rev numbers. Maybe not relevant
but it sounds like a regression in 11, but there may be other factors ..

Post by Matthias Apitz
That's why I wanted first concentrate on this C720 to learn what the nature
of the issue or configuration is on this and I wrote in the mail from
...
a) concentrate first on the C720 which still beeps (to eliminate the
risk that the other has a hardware issue)

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz
1. it should beep on key backspace while cursor is on prompt
2. it should beep on a second ESC in editor vi
3. it should beep on the shell command: printf "\7"

I don't use vi, but 1 and 3 work here fine both from a VT and within
KDE, however I have KDE send 'beep' notifications rather than speaker.
You seem to assume that something's broken in FreeBSD - which may be the
case - but it's also possible that the speaker hardware on the non-
beeping one is just broken, especially as device speaker didn't work.

Yes, from the fact "r292778 beeps, while r303343 does not on the same
hardware and the same BIOS" I think that either there is some config
problem or "a moving target", i.e. some random bug;

To see if I've got this clear .. it's only with your 11-alpha memstick
boot that there's no speaker working? That applies to both machines?
And that both C720s' speakers work right on r292778?

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Ian Smith
Usually the hardware for these in laptops is a simple piezo speaker,
commonly with red and blue wires, likely driven by a single TTL or CMOS
buffer. While piezo speakers are pretty hard (but not impossible) to
destroy, I've had a laptop where one wire has become detached, so if
it's not too hard to get in there to check, that may be worthwhile .. if
so it's likely a simple fix, either by soldering or replacement.
Another possibility is that it's (become?) disabled in BIOS settings?

If it comes to the so called BIOS settings, these Chromebooks has no
settings menu. The hardware boots some 'coreboot' software which has as
a payload a SeaBIOS and the only option you have is select the boot
device if there are more than one.

Ok, thanks. Hmmm. But beep works ok at the coreboot boot screen, but
not later running under FreeBSD, on one?

Does it have volume control and mute buttons? Do these work in FreeBSD?
I've seen mention of these in mobile@ and acpi@ but paid no attention ..

Reason I ask is that, just now for old times' sake, I tried the old:
# kldload speaker
# echo cdefgec >/dev/speaker
on my Lenovo X200, lid-down accessed via ssh on a 120x50 Konsole.

Silence. Huh? 'mixer speaker' shows 70:70. Backspace at prompt, KDE
beeptone. Surprised, I (cleared then :) opened the lid and logged in;
no backspace beep. Oh, ah - hit volume-up .. beep all good, Hit mute,
beep gone locally - but Konsole remotely still does its KDE notify beep
as mentioned, so I hadn't noticed it had been muted for maybe a week ..

Which is a longwinded way of saying: try eg the volume-up button while
at coreboot screen, in case if booted in 'mute' state, freebsd won't be
able to unset that, especially if volume buttons don't work in freebas?

Just a long shot .. no warranty ..

Post by Matthias Apitz
So, back to the above question: why the beast is beeping with r292778
and not with r303343? Maybe the answer to this will later explain why
the other C720 is not beeping at all at the moment, not with r292778 and
not with r303343...

Now the last bit is why I was (re)confused .. you mean the was-working
one has become non-working since trying 11-alpha2, even back on r292778?

Post by Matthias Apitz
In any case I will open my C720 and look for the red/blue wires, if they
are not below the motherboard :-(

No, if the other one has 'gone bad' too, it almost must be software. Or
firmware. Apart from the mute button thing, you could try a real cold
reset (ie battery removed and replaced after a time). Out of ideas ..

cheers, Ian (Please cc me, digests can take a full day sometimes)

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Ian Smith
In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 634, Issue 5, Message: 6
[..]

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz
I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.

I've been following this thread with interest.

Hi Ian,
This is nice that you say this, really!

(Ian, btw: your mail server rejects mail from unixarea.de as SPAM)

Post by Ian Smith
I was surprised it was still a mystery .. but I'm still struggling to
put a complete picture together re the working / non-working machines,
and/or FreeBSD revisions.

here you have a complete picture of the 2 C720 and a Dell E6330:

my C720:

FreeBSD c720-r292778-amd64 11.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT #0 r292778: Mon Dec 28 05:45:37 CET 2015 ***@poudriere-amd64:/usr/local/r292778/obj/usr/local/r292778/src/sys/GENERIC amd64

no beep when running 11-CURRENT r292778 from SSD
no beep when running 12-CURRENT r303343 from USB stick

my son's C720 (a total clone of my C720):

FreeBSD c720-r292778-amd64 11.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT #2 r292778M: Sun Jul 3 19:33:52 CEST 2016 ***@c720-r292778-amd64:/usr/local/r292778/obj/usr/local/r292778/src/sys/GENERIC amd64

beeps fine when running 11-CURRENT r292778 from SSD
no beep when running 12-CURRENT r303343 from USB stick


Dell Latitude E6330

FreeBSD e6330-r302904-amd64 12.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT #0 r302904M: Fri Jul 15 22:09:31 CEST 2016 ***@e6330-r285885-amd64:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64

beeps fine when running 12-CURRENT r302904 from SSD
no beep when running 12-CURRENT r303343 from USB stick

Post by Ian Smith
And I only just noticed 'only in the coreboot splash screen'; see below.

Post by Matthias Apitz
The problem started some days
ago on the C720 I'm using 7*24 and where I'm typing right now. It could
really be the fact that this C720 has a hardware or BIOS issue. But the
other C720 my son is using, running the same FreeBSD r292778 is beeping
fine but is not beeping when I boot a new USB stick with r303343.

What's uname -a on r292778? Since losing access to svnweb.freebsd.org I
can't readily see what's what from just rev numbers. Maybe not relevant
but it sounds like a regression in 11, but there may be other factors ..

Post by Matthias Apitz
That's why I wanted first concentrate on this C720 to learn what the nature
of the issue or configuration is on this and I wrote in the mail from
...
a) concentrate first on the C720 which still beeps (to eliminate the
risk that the other has a hardware issue)

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz
1. it should beep on key backspace while cursor is on prompt
2. it should beep on a second ESC in editor vi
3. it should beep on the shell command: printf "\7"

I don't use vi, but 1 and 3 work here fine both from a VT and within
KDE, however I have KDE send 'beep' notifications rather than speaker.
You seem to assume that something's broken in FreeBSD - which may be the
case - but it's also possible that the speaker hardware on the non-
beeping one is just broken, especially as device speaker didn't work.

Yes, from the fact "r292778 beeps, while r303343 does not on the same
hardware and the same BIOS" I think that either there is some config
problem or "a moving target", i.e. some random bug;

To see if I've got this clear .. it's only with your 11-alpha memstick
boot that there's no speaker working? That applies to both machines?
And that both C720s' speakers work right on r292778?

yes they worked both fine until some days;

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz

Post by Ian Smith
Usually the hardware for these in laptops is a simple piezo speaker,
commonly with red and blue wires, likely driven by a single TTL or CMOS
buffer. While piezo speakers are pretty hard (but not impossible) to
destroy, I've had a laptop where one wire has become detached, so if
it's not too hard to get in there to check, that may be worthwhile .. if
so it's likely a simple fix, either by soldering or replacement.
Another possibility is that it's (become?) disabled in BIOS settings?

If it comes to the so called BIOS settings, these Chromebooks has no
settings menu. The hardware boots some 'coreboot' software which has as
a payload a SeaBIOS and the only option you have is select the boot
device if there are more than one.

Ok, thanks. Hmmm. But beep works ok at the coreboot boot screen, but
not later running under FreeBSD, on one?

yes;

Post by Ian Smith
Does it have volume control and mute buttons? Do these work in FreeBSD?

They have no special buttons for vol control; this works in KDE with
Alt-F8 (mute) Atl-F9 (lower) and Alt-F10 (vol up) and work fine on both
C720; audio is general is fine on both C720, only PC-speaker is
affected;

Post by Ian Smith
# kldload speaker
# echo cdefgec >/dev/speaker
on my Lenovo X200, lid-down accessed via ssh on a 120x50 Konsole.
Silence. Huh? 'mixer speaker' shows 70:70. Backspace at prompt, KDE
beeptone. Surprised, I (cleared then :) opened the lid and logged in;
no backspace beep. Oh, ah - hit volume-up .. beep all good, Hit mute,
beep gone locally - but Konsole remotely still does its KDE notify beep
as mentioned, so I hadn't noticed it had been muted for maybe a week ..
Which is a longwinded way of saying: try eg the volume-up button while
at coreboot screen, in case if booted in 'mute' state, freebsd won't be
able to unset that, especially if volume buttons don't work in freebas?
Just a long shot .. no warranty ..

Post by Matthias Apitz
So, back to the above question: why the beast is beeping with r292778
and not with r303343? Maybe the answer to this will later explain why
the other C720 is not beeping at all at the moment, not with r292778 and
not with r303343...

Now the last bit is why I was (re)confused .. you mean the was-working
one has become non-working since trying 11-alpha2, even back on r292778?

No. Both run r292778 for some months and beeped fine. One stopped
beeping, while audio is still fine;

Post by Ian Smith

Post by Matthias Apitz
In any case I will open my C720 and look for the red/blue wires, if they
are not below the motherboard :-(

No, if the other one has 'gone bad' too, it almost must be software. Or
firmware. Apart from the mute button thing, you could try a real cold
reset (ie battery removed and replaced after a time). Out of ideas ..
cheers, Ian (Please cc me, digests can take a full day sometimes)

I Cc you but it bounces.

matthias

[Matthias Apitz]

Post by Ian Smith
Usually the hardware for these in laptops is a simple piezo speaker,
commonly with red and blue wires, likely driven by a single TTL or CMOS
buffer. While piezo speakers are pretty hard (but not impossible) to
destroy, I've had a laptop where one wire has become detached, so if
it's not too hard to get in there to check, that may be worthwhile .. if
so it's likely a simple fix, either by soldering or replacement.
...

I have had a chat in some forum about Chromebooks. The people there are
not willing to help further because "...we only support plain vanilla
ChromeOS at this forum." Full thread here:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chromebook-central/-MXyMACfcCU;context-place=forum/chromebook-central

At least someone pointed out that these devices only have stereo audio
speakers (which do fine in my case) and no other "pc speaker" on
motherboard. As the speakers do fine, this must be some problem in our
FreeBSD kernel / audio driver, not sending the printf '\7' to the audio
device.

matthias