i created a new user a couple days ago. when switched to that user, modifier keys (shift, ctrl, alt) make drip sound/beep when pressed. this sound goes out to my bluetooth headphones when they are connected.

what i would like to know is what configuration setting for that userid is allowing this to happen.

i am running Xubuntu 20.04 last upgraded yesterday 2024-09-19 (i have rebooted twice since then). other users are not affected.

anyone know what component is doing this? in pavucontrol i have system sounds set at 0%.

Sounds like 'system sounds' is enabled.....

but that is not the case. in pavucontrol the volume level slider for "System Sounds" is at 0% and adjusting this has no effect. these sounds happen only for the new userid and not for any others. i would like to have this drip sound for these characters at about 16% of what they are now and for all userids, except when playing music or videos, which only be done on userid "media" where the sounds plat, now.

edit 1:

so, tell me. where do i enable "System Sounds", or disable them?

even more strange ...

today, i was working on the setup of the new userid "media" and removed the temporarily add desktop files in /home/media/Desktop. a while after i did that i noticed that the drip sound quit working. i just did add them back after extracting all the firefox profile names from those that run firefox on a distinct profile (the -p option). the drip sound came back. these were copied from userid "pdh" which has no drip sound (none of my older userids have the drip sound). these are older files that define desktop icons. all their names end in ".desktop" and are located in the /home/{username}/Desktop directory. how strange. i now need to be extra observant as i copy passwords from various profiles from old userid "pdh" to new userid "media", this evening. i will copy just one at first to be sure i'm doing it right and that firefox will be able to decrypt the password under a different userid number and name (hopefully it did not use the userid number and name as part of the encryption key, though i am now wondering how it was able to keep these passwords secure without user passphrase input).

i found a setting that affects the drip sound, although it was not changed earlier. the "sticky keys" setting was on. it is on for every userid i use (all of them on my laptop). it is my guess that this feature is implemented in X, not in the kernel. but i could be wrong. i turned the "sticky keys" off for userid "media" while it was making the drip sound. after turning "sticky keys" off, the drip sound no longer happened. i turned "sticky keys" back on and the drip sound came back on.

i still do not know why the drip sound unexpectedly went away earlier then unexpectedly came back. i did not change the "sticky keys" setting earlier.

i still do not know why the drip sound does not happen at all for my older userids, such as "pdh", even though they all have "sticky keys" enabled.

i like "sticky keys". it lets one press modifier keys and release them, then press the key they affect. i can press either left or right "Ctrl" key then press the "C" key to do Ctrl-C. it makes one hand typing a lot easier. "Caps Lock" does not cause any sound.