Entries from November 2009 ↓

So I upgraded to Ubuntu karmic a few weeks back. To my horror, I found that the PC Speaker has been disabled. I like the use of the PC Speaker, for irssi and my email. It’s very handy. I seem to be one of the few people that feel like this. Anyway… After a few weeks, I’ve finally worked out how to enable it again Yay!

1. Open up /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

   gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

   (Use kdesu rather than gksudo, in KDE)

2. Comment out the following lines, by placing a # at the start:

   blacklist snd_pcsp
   blacklist pcspkr

3. Save and exit.
4. Load the modules manually, rather than restarting

   sudo modprobe snd_pcsp
   sudo modprobe pcspkr

It could work now. Have a try. If not, you may have to change a gconf setting. To do this:

1. Load the gconf editor:

   gconf-editor

2. Navigate to /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard
3. Adjust bell_mode to on

Edit: Now this did originally work for me, but it stopped after I rebooted and snd_pcsp was making the pc speaker make strange noises. So I’ve tweaked it a bit.

1. Blacklist the two modules again in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
2. Open up /etc/rc.local

   gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

3. Before the exit line add these two lines:

   modprobe pcspkr
   modprobe snd_pcsp

The end. It REALLY should be working now. Good luck!