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* Re: playing short tune via beep
@  Martin McCormick
   ` Kirk Reiser
   ` Janina Sajka
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 18+ messages in thread
From: Martin McCormick @  UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Linux for blind general discussion

"John Heim" writes:
>I chose to have the monitoring server  beep because that takes only a kernel 
>module and the PC speaker to work. It doesn't need a sound card, speakers, 
>alsa, or a synth.

	I must be missing that module. Is this the module
referred to in the sound/Kconfig file in the kernel source? It says:

>	  I'm told that even without a sound card, you can make your computer
>	  say more than an occasional beep, by programming the PC speaker.
>	  Kernel patches and supporting utilities to do that are in the pcsp
>	  package, available at <ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/pcsp/>.

	I recently installed beep on 4 Dell systems. Each uses a
2.6.5 kernel I built since each system has a CD berner and ALSA.
All of that works properly.

	If one tells the P.C. to beep at 3 KHZ for 10 seconds,
the system does pause for ten seconds but there is no sound from
the small speaker.

	I know from programming in assembler in DOS that the
speaker has a timer/counter IC driving it and you can either
send a tone or a steady DC signal depending upon which bits in
the timer control registers you set or clear.

	I don't recall seeing any modules in the kernel that
mentioned the P.C. speaker which is why I am asking the
question.

	When I installed beep, I did set the suid bit to root
because each of the systems in question has a serial console and
that is what the man page recommends one do in that case.

	There are no errors or complaints, but no beeps either.

	The systems do beep during booting and grub beeps. After
that, there is never another sound from the timer counter system
until the next reboot.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 18+ messages in thread
* Re: playing short tune via beep
@  Martin McCormick
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 18+ messages in thread
From: Martin McCormick @  UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Linux for blind general discussion

	It works. I installed the newly-built kernel on 3
systems, all older Dells of various but similar configuration.

	One worked immediately after rebooting. One hasn't
worked yet, and the other one is the reason for this message.

	It seems that the timer/counter signal on this one
system is run as an analog input to the sound chip. This
particular set of simple mixer controls has one that is called
"mono output" and another control just called plain old mono.

	The "mono output" control will route sound chip audio
from either channel to the little internal speaker.

	The control labeled "mono" turns out to be the output
from the timer/counter or classic P.C. speaker.

	It started working as soon as I turned it on and cranked
up the volume. This means that the beeps can go to one's main
speakers or headphones. The internal speaker will respond to
both the sound card as well as the timer/counter once you have
that switch on.

	There are lots of variations even among the same
computers so if you have one that isn't beeping but should be,
check the simple mixer controls to see if one of them lets
timer/counter audio through.

	Unfortunately, some P.C.'s have no speaker or somebody
disconnected it for some reason so you will have to be a good
diagnostician.

Martin McCormick

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 18+ messages in thread
* Re: playing short tune via beep
@  Martin McCormick
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 18+ messages in thread
From: Martin McCormick @  UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Linux for blind general discussion

Kirk Reiser writes:
>With the 2.6.xx kernels the pc speaker code has been moved to
>drivers/input/misc so you need to build it as a module or build it in
>there.  That caught a lot of people out when they made the change.
>You can fix it up with make menuconfig or make config.

	make menuconfig is exactly what I do so a thousand
thanks!

	This is a very good feature to have because one can make
audible graphics so to speak such as a tone that gets higher
based on a value. Any hams on this list who have ever used an
audio gimic to read an analog meter to set a peak or who have
ever used a light probe know that sometimes, all you need to
know is whether a reading is increasing, decreasing or steady.
It's sort of the old kid's game of getting warmer or getting
colder.

Martin McCormick

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 18+ messages in thread
* playing short tune via beep
@  John Heim
   ` Tim Chase
   ` Janina Sajka
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 18+ messages in thread
From: John Heim @  UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Linux for blind general discussion

I'm writing a script to alert  me if a server gets too hot. I'd like it to 
play a couple of different short tunes via the beep command depending on the 
temperature. Anybody have any beep recipes?

--
John Heim
jheim@math.wisc.edu / 608-263-4189
If you are blind and you use linux, please subscribe to 
blinux-list@redhat.com



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 18+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~ UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 18+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
 playing short tune via beep Martin McCormick
 ` Kirk Reiser
 ` Janina Sajka
   ` Andor Demarteau
     ` Geoff Shang
       ` Andor Demarteau
         ` John Heim
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
 Martin McCormick
 Martin McCormick
 John Heim
 ` Tim Chase
 ` Janina Sajka
   ` John Heim
     ` John Heim
     ` Janina Sajka
       ` Valiant (on laptop)
         ` Lee Maschmeyer
         ` John Heim

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