[alsa-devel] PC speaker beeps in 2.6.30?

[Kurt J. Bosch]

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 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. ;)

>> (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 ?