Hideous BEEP on new email

[Peter Rhone]

Binary package hint: indicator-applet

In evolution I have turned off the "Play a Sound" option in Mail Preferences, I have also changed the theme in Sound Preferences to "No Sounds" and Muted "Alert Volume". The pcspkr module is blacklisted. Despite all this, when a new email arrives, I am greeted by a heinous and *LOUD* "BEEP" sound which overpowers my music and scares the baby (and me). What can I do other than reverting to 9.04? This is terrible!

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Oct 12 16:50:24 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: indicator-applet 0.2.0-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-13.44-generic
SourcePackage: indicator-applet
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-13-generic x86_64

[Peter Rhone (prhone-gmail)]

Apparently this isn't just a problem with the indicator-applet because other applications are beeping in the same way:
1. gnome-terminal when I backspace too far (though I could turn this 'feature' off by unchecking "Terminal Bell" in the profile prefs
2. vimperator plugin for Firefox when I scroll to high or low
3. gvim likewise
4. probably everything else as well.

This is bad. Really bad. See Ubuntu: #77010

[Ted Gould (ted)]

Not sure this is a pulseaudio bug, but it seems like an audio related one. I figured someone watching those bugs might have a better idea :)

[Andrew Senyshyn (asenyshyn)]

I'm not sure about the package, but for sure todays update made this terrible sound to appear all over the system. and it sounds on maximum output volume. How to disable it???? Otherwise somebody will become deaf :)

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 11:58 AM, Andrew Senyshyn <email address hidden> wrote:
> I'm not sure about the package, but for sure todays update made this
> terrible sound to appear all over the system. and it sounds on maximum
> output volume. How to disable it???? Otherwise somebody will become deaf

Please file a separate bug.

[Peter Rhone (prhone-gmail)]

I can tentatively say that I have found a workaround after carefully reading bug 77010. Open gconf-editor, navigate to
Desktop->Gnome->Peripherals->Keyboard and set "bell_mode" to "off"

Why setting the keyboard bell to "off" would stop the indicator-applet from beeping on new emails is a question I cannot answer.

[Andrew Senyshyn (asenyshyn)]

In my case Peters solution works too.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

In my case Peter's solution works, too. It was beeping every time I pressed 'delete' to send a file to the garbage, when I shutdown, when new email arrived, upon backspace or tab in the terminal...

I wonder what turned bell_mode to 'on' all of a sudden? And why the heck would 'bell_mode' exist in the first place - the system beep is just awful!

[Bryan Donlan (bdonlan)]

Moreover, what happened to the GUI controls for the system bell? It used to be under system->preferences->sound (cf http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=156095) but doesn't seem to be there anymore.

[Peter Rhone (prhone-gmail)]

Unfortunately I'm still not satisifed: ugly BEEP at shutdown for no apparent reason. When I booted into a console (due to unrelated nvidia issues) there were BEEPs aplenty- for example when I backspace too far, BEEP with tab-completion. I verified that neither pcspkr or snd_pcsp was loaded, so I'm at a complete loss at to what could be causing this. On a separate partition on the same computer I have Ubuntu 8.04 installed which doesn't have this problem, so it is a definite regression, and a most terrible one.

[adrianhensler (adrianhensler)]

I agree that the new system bell is most distressing. Is there no easy way to change it from this jarring buzzing?

[Brewster Malevich (brews)]

I have this beep as well. Its not just in Evolution, I don't think, but I hear it as an error sound every now and then. Sometimes, the beep starts, and *does-not-stop* (a very loud system bell will hold for several seconds). This is maddening.

[Brewster Malevich (brews)]

Is there a prior bug report on this? I'm seeing a number of duplicates for this system beep. I want to be sure this isn't one of them.

[Madde (cev-madde)]

I have the same issues as described by Peter Rhone.

I got this annoying beep for the first time after an update of pulsaudio about 1 week ago.I had no problems before this update on ubuntu 9.10.

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

Martin - I seem to recall you fixed a similar bug in the past. Is this still an issue? If so, please assign to the appropriate engineer (Luke?)

[Peter Rhone (prhone-gmail)]

Just to add my two cents: although this has been already mentioned elsewhere (but #77010) but I'd like to add that to mute the "PC Beep", start alsamixer, select "PC Beep" with the arrow keys and press 'm'. Simply setting the volume bars to 0 is *not* enough! This completely solved the issue for me in Lucid on a Dell XPS M1530. (along with blacklisting pcspkr, but that is default now anyway)