What build are you trying on? One of the new "features" in Xorg 1.5
(b107 and later) is that when X beeps, it now uses both /dev/audio &
/dev/kbd, to make sure you really hear it. (We probably need to add
some configuration options to allow you to disable one or the other
before the remaining Ferrari 4000 users form a lynch mob at my door,
but I haven't gotten to that yet.)
-Alan Coopersmith- alan.coopersmith at sun.com
Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering
Willie Walker wrote:
> Hi All:
>
> As part of the OpenSolaris accessible live CD and install work, we play
> audible prompts (beeps) at the keyboard layout and language selection screens
> presented during the boot of the live CD. These prompts allow blind people
> to determine that they are being asked for input. When coupled with separate
> written documentation, the user can then work their way through the boot and
> install the system without sighted assistance.
>
> On *some* machines, notably this nice little Toshiba Portege R500 laptop in
> my lap, the console beep doesn't seem to work. As a means for testing this,
> I do an "svcadm disable gdm", login, and then type "/usr/bin/printf '\a'". I
> know the beep *can* work -- if I press/hold the Escape key while powering the
> machine on, I get a nice loud beep.
>
> Aside from being able to set the volume level of the beep (which I have set
> to the loudest setting), I cannot see anything in the BIOS that lets me
> enable/disable the system bell. I've also tried mucking with
> /etc/kbd/default to no avail.
>
> I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue or a driver issue, and I'm wondering
> if anyone has any ideas.
>
> Will
>
> PS - my next step is to boot a live CD from a different distribution (e.g.,
> Ubuntu) to see if it exhibits the same problem.
