The GDM in Ubuntu changed a bit since Karmic. Now you no longer need to type in both username and password. Instead there is a list of users that shows up, similar to what we have in Windows and Mac. That way you don’t accidentally type in the password when you are supposed to be typing your user name. While this is a really nice way to login, Ubuntu added a drum sound which plays each time you arrive at the login screen – this can be when a user logs out or starts the computer. There is no simple way to disable that sound using GUI. There is however a simple command line which disables this login screen sound as lets you login silently.
If you are a sudoer, open up the terminal and type in:
sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 –set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds –type bool false
The next time you logout, or restart the computer, the sound won’t be played again.
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Update: The above methods doesn’t work for everyone. There have been a couple of other methods that have been known to work.
To actually disable the “login ready” sound you need to edit your /etc/gdm/custom.conf file.
sudo gedit /etc/gdm/custom.conf
Under the [greeter] section add the line:
SoundOnLogin=false
Another method that has worked for some is the removal of ubuntu-sounds package. This will remove all the event sounds as well, but your media should work just fine.
sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-sounds
These are some of the methods that have worked for several people. YMMV – unfortunately.
Hey,
a nice way to configure GDM is to start the gconf-editor as gdm.
To do so you have to be logged out (in the gdm login screen), change to a tty (ctrl + alt + F1) and then run the following commands:
$ export DISPLAY=:0.0
$ sudo -u gdm gconf-editor
Then change back to the xserver on tty7 (ctrl + alt + F7).
You will see the gconf-editor on the gdm screen and may configure what ever you want.
There you will be able to browse to the key /desktop/gnome/sounds.
Then you can uncheck the event_sounds value.
For me the commandline didn’t work out but the gconf-editor does the job.
Kinda strange, cause it should do the same…
Greetings from Germany, Conisant
When I copy and pasted the above it didn’t work because some of the characters were not correct. Here is what worked…
sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 –set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds –type bool false
I tried Conisant’s way as well, but the gconf-editor that came up was empty. Probably something to do with all the errors that also came up about a TCP problem with ORBit.
Ah, I see the problem is with your site. It’s changed the double dash (-) before ‘set’ and ‘type’ to a big single one.
@Limey
I found the command line method someplace else as well. I tried it and it didn’t work. Then it dawned on me to restart gdm – that killed the little drum sound.
$ sudo service gdm restart
This is crazy. No solution for every GDM. And only geek-type solutions.
Can Ubuntu aim at beeing user friendly with such kind of annoyances?
Always a new trick to shutdown the “login sound” – HA HA – this at each new release.
It must be someone realy mean setting things like this.