Imaging and a little bit of OSS

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.

****

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.

slash_boot Linux and OSS karmic koala, login screen, sound

The system beep is one of the most distracting and annoying occurrences when you are doing some constructive work. Be it working in a text editor, or a terminal, or a program window – wherever a sound notification is programmed into any module, it emits a fairly audible beep. To disable the beep, we have to disable the PC speaker by adding it to the blacklist.

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Add the following line to the end of that file:

blacklist pcspkr

Save and exit. Then in terminal,

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

This completely turns off the speaker. You won’t hear your system beep, even if there is something truly wrong. If you are doing something critical and need to rely on the beeps, comment out the line from the blacklist and run the modprobe command. Beeping will restart.

slash_boot Linux and OSS beep, jaunty, Linux and OSS, sound, ubuntu