Internal pc speakers in VirtualBox
 

I'm running TempleOS as a VirtualBox guest on a Debian Wheezy host. TempleOS is a very special OS maybe better viewed as an art project than as anything like a regular OS. Anyways it only supports sound from internal pc speakers - how do I get that working in VirtualBox? I've tried both selecting Intel HD Audio, ICH AC97 and Soundblaster 16 all with ALSA in VirtualBox settings.

My computer is a Lenovo Thinkpad edge and I can get system beeps on the host so I think the internal pc speakers are working as they should ...

Thanks!

Virtualbox is a software version of a real computer. In this instance the client is using a software device of some common sound. In any of those choices you have to be sure the client OS is configured properly to use the choice. I might be tempted to try a live cd like mint and see if the sound works out of the box. That would prove the host can play sound hopefully. Then you'd need to go back to the client and see if there is some issue from driver to volume to alsa mixer or what not.

Thanks for replying. Sound is fine on my host OS, other VirtualBox clients and live CD's. This is a specific questions about an OS that only supports pc speaker ... well I guess it might be a hardware problem. Thinkpads have somekind of pc speaker that can only be shut off from the bios and that can beep. Well maybe that isn't compatible with the old school way of doing things in TempleOS ...

Ok. I get it now.

Pc speaker could be an option in the virtual machine's bios. Usually have to be quick to access it. Use your VM's doc's for virtual bios options to see if it is possible to enable or disable.

The host pc speaker I don't think isn't involved in the client as you seem to suggest. Any sound from a vm would be translated to the host's sound.

Might be just as easy to add in some sound support for this OS.

It may be that some issue also has disabled pc speaker in the OS. Might try some old dos or other simple OS to verify that a VM can use beep.

Thanks

I'm not sure about the bios settings.
Makes the splash screen stay longer but only option is to press F12 for boot options which doesn't include bios. Some forums say VB bios options doesn't exist. Maybe it's deprecated ...

Anyways good idea to test DOS or something like it to see if internal pc speaker works with that.

By Golly you are correct. I think I did hear about that being changed. I just tried it and can only get to F12 temp boot order menu. Del F1 and F2 don't seem to work. Manual doesn't seem to say any way to vboxmanage pc speaker.

Do you have to use the client's pc speaker?

Been looking into it and the only bios settings for sound on the host computer involve enabling or disabling various beep warnings so I've come to believe that all the pc speaker on my computer can do is beep. If that the case, I'm looking for a way to make VirtualBox emulate pc speaker hardware and play the sound via alsa, though I'm afraid that's not doable in any straight-forward way.

I've read somewhere that VMWare used to have that kind of support for pc speaker but doesn't anymore. That's why I tried VirtualBox hoping it could work there ...

I don't think a client's use of a pc speaker would use the hosts pc speaker ever on any vm.

The question is still, why do you need to use the pc speaker? A common sound card driver should fix your issue.

Might try qemu.

One of the forums for ubuntu had a search hit for something like you wanted but it was down because of being hacked. Maybe it is back up.

Now I get your question. TempleOS is (somewhat primitively) designed with one default driver for everything. For similar reasons only 640x480 16 color screen resolution is supported.

qemu looks interesting. Checking it out now.

Heck, I thought templeos was a linux disto. I see now what it is. The web site is so confusing I can't tell what it is. Seems to look like assembly but goes back and forth.

What do you need to use this OS for? Can some other OS like MenuetOS or HaikuOS or freedos or qnx work?

Well, as I wrote in my first post maybe templeOS is better viewed as an art project than a regular OS. Some guy wrote it pretty much from scratch in his own version of C called Holy C. As indicated by the website and videos he has put on youtube the guy seems to believe that God lives in his OS and indeed it features a game in which God speaks to you (in random generated words) if you find the burning bush on Mount Horeb(!) There is also a program for creating hymns which (as demonstrated on youtube) sound unnervingly weird. I would need sound to play with that.

Regardless of what issues it's creator might have templeOS is a remarkable accomplishment that seems like a parallel universe of OS's. Honestly my interest in it is simply novelty.

Might try older versions of virtualbox, qemu, vmplayer, bochs or (I forget the other one I wanted to suggest). Pretty sure I had some OS running in bochs under BeOS a long time ago and the pc speaker worked.

I'd still try some other OS's in a current version to see if the pc speaker could work.

I have tried almost all the unique OS's. One guy made SkyOS and it was pretty neat. I think one guy made MenuetOS and it is fantastic.