This is not a question but an answer. Thought I would share what I learned incase someone else runs into this issue:
Some programs we use require the BELL (BEL) function. This is the ancient teletype bell that rings when a ^G is sent to a terminal emulator.
Under Linux, you can tell if yours works by pressing Control-G in an Xterm. If you hear a beep- it works. Normally this used to be done through the "PC SPEAKER" which is a separate speaker in the computer. Under KDE/Gnome, there are functions to reroute this to the Linux sound system to simulate the bell.
But in our environment, we don't use KDE/Gnome, we use thin clients talking to a remote icewm. The solution on most of the machines was easy- just load the "pcspkr" kernel module and wham, you will hear beeps again.
But on the new Shuttle machines, they have no speaker or even connection for one. So I had a problem. Fortunately, I was not the only one with such a problem- and the solution was found on this site:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Virtual_PC_Speaker
Which directed me to this site:
http://www.carcosa.net/jason/software/beep/
There is a kernel driver called "beep" that compiled perfectly under Mandriva 2007.0. It creates a /dev/beep device that a (supplied) daemon can use to play sounds (with aplay) when a BEL occurs. I
already sent the author Email thanking him.
