Got desperate and moved to 2.6.5 and ALSA, all sources from sid. Built the pcspkr module into the kernel, rather than leaving it separate (when would I /not/ want it loaded?), and built all the sound modules.
KDE continues to take control of the system beep. It now works at the console, even when KDE is running and I switch ttys, but goes back to nothing once I switch back to KDE. 2.4 or 2.6, OSS or ALSA... the only thing consistently breaking here is KDE after the 3.2 transition. I will keep trying.
