[alsa-devel] PC speaker beeps in 2.6.30?

[Takashi Iwai]

At Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:35:00 +0200,
Kurt J. Bosch wrote:
> 
> On 2009-06-30 14:53, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > At Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:31:07 +0200,
> > Kurt J. Bosch wrote:
> >>
> >> On 2009-06-30 07:57, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> >>> At Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:24:14 -0700,
> >>> Paul Vojta wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 01:09:26PM +0200, Kurt J. Bosch wrote:
> >>>>> On 2009-06-28 10:38, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> >>>>>> At Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:39:08 -0700,
> >>>>>> Paul Vojta wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 09:36:42AM +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> >>>>>>>> At Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:03:54 +0400,
> >>>>>>>> Michael Tokarev wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> [Adding some more Cc's...]
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Am I the only concerned about this?  My 2.6.30 is still
> >>>>>>>>> silent w.r.t. old good PC speaker beeps, and I wasn't
> >>>>>>>>> able to make it to produce any sound.  Yes, as pointed
> >>>>>>>>> out by others there is a control now, in alsa, and I
> >>>>>>>>> can hear ugly and scary beeps from my stereo speakers
> >>>>>>>>> (when they're turned on and when the control is un-muted).
> >>>>>>>>> But that's.. not a solution/answer to the original
> >>>>>>>>> question... ;)
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Try 2.6.31-rc1.  There was a fix regarding beep frequency.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Not necessarily.  Based on the OP's original post, as well as his mails
> >>>>>>> to the LKML (Google the subject line to find them), he has a desktop
> >>>>>>> system with external powered speakers connected to a sound card, and also
> >>>>>>> a small PC speaker inside the system case.  He wants to hear the beeps
> >>>>>>> coming out of the small speaker, since the external speakers (and/or sound
> >>>>>>> card) are not always turned on.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> To avoid someone misunderstanding: the beep routed through HD-audio
> >>>>>> can also go to the built-in speaker.  It's just mixed up with the
> >>>>>> normal audio output, and the volume is controlled via ALSA mixer
> >>>>>> volume element.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> But, once after it's hooked up to the codec, the beep can't be output
> >>>>>> separately to the speaker.  It's always with other audio signal to the
> >>>>>> same output target.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Or, on some systems (mostly laptops), the beep is hooked up to the
> >>>>>> codec automatically no matter whether you set
> >>>>>> CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP once when the codec chip is initialized.
> >>>>>> So, the behavior depends pretty much on the hardware implementation.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>> I face the same problem as the OP since kernel 2.6.30 on ArchLinux on
> >>>>> a desktop machine. I was able to get beep working through the built in
> >>>>> speaker again by doing a 'modprobe -r pcspkr' followed by a
> >>>>> 'modprobe pcspkr' after sysinit. It seems there is some kind of
> >>>>> struggle goinig on here between alsa and pcspkr. Isn't there any
> >>>>> kernel line or modules configuration option to disable the alsa pc-beep?
> >>>>
> >>>> Hm... apparently not.  Probably there should be a module option for this, though.
> >>>
> >>> In the latest sound git tree, you can use "patch" file (passed via
> >>> module option) to specify codec-specific setup.
> >>> It's for 2.6.32, though.
> >>>
> >> Sounds rather complicated to me. :)
> >> ALSA's snd-hda-intel is stealing the beeps allready 'owned' by pcspkr.
> >
> > It just adds another beep input device.
> >
> If that is true both should sound in parallel and then I had to file a bug
> against ArchLinux ?

It's a feature.

> >> It does
> >> this every time it gets [re]loaded. Doing so while lacking a
> >> configuration option
> >> to disable that behavior is a bug IMHO.
> >
> > There is a configuration option.
> >
> But not for the kernel cmdline, right. ;)

But you can do it via patch module option (in the later kernel).

> >> (If you use beep to get some alarm
> >> notification from hardware sensors or such you will depend on stereo
> >> speakers
> >> connected and powered on.) Do I miss something ?
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> Patching drivers and building my own kernels again as in the old days ?

Why not?


Takashi