Hi Alan: Unfortunately, at the point at where I want the system to beep, the X Server has not yet been started. It's at the character-cell console language and keyboard layout prompts you get when you first boot the live CD.
In any case, it sounds like Yangrong Zhou might on the trail for this problem. If that's the case, it would be really awesome and also help me avoid any regret for the $$$'s spent on the R500. I might also try to spin up a new custom live CD to see if the /usr/bin/audioplay and /usr/share/sounds/generic.wav files are available and working (and /usr/bin/espeak for that matter). If that's the case, then I might be able to come up with a richer solution than the beep-based one I put in place for 2008.11. Will Alan Coopersmith wrote: > 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. >
