No beep in the installer.

Didier Spaier · 11-27-2014, 03:01 PM

I want to be able to produce a "beep" sound inside a Slint or Slackware installer, to give a prompt to blind folks using a Braille device (I will ship brltty in the installer).

As the module pcspkr is not shipped by default in Slackware installers, I have added it.

Once the installer has started, "modprobe pcspkr" works (checked with lsmod) but then I don't hear a "beep" when I type:

Code:

echo -e "\a"

What could be wrong?

In the script that customizes the installer, I do this:

Code:

# Install pcspkr modules
for kernel_version in `ls $TMP/initrd/lib/modules`; do
  cp $TARGET/packages/pcspkr.ko $TMP/initrd/lib/modules/$kernel_version
  depmod -a -b $TMP/initrd $kernel_version
done

During the script's execution I get warnings

Code:

depmod: WARNING: could not open /tmp/slint-20141122/initrd/lib/modules/3.10.17/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /tmp/slint-20141122/initrd/lib/modules/3.10.17/modules.builtin: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /tmp/slint-20141122/initrd/lib/modules/3.10.17-smp/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /tmp/slint-20141122/initrd/lib/modules/3.10.17-smp/modules.builtin: No such file or directory

I assume that doesn't hurt as I can insert the modules, but maybe I'm wrong

EDIT I made another try, this time installing the package kmod in the installer. In the running installer "depmod -a" gave the same kind of warnings as the command in the build script, "modprobe pcspkr" worked again, but 'echo -e "\a"' still produced no sound.

number22 · 11-27-2014, 03:41 PM

run depmond -a in /tmp/slint-20141122/initrd/lib/modules/3.10.17/ to update its modules depend file.
if you run echo -e "\a" in xterm, make sure visual bell is off.

Didier Spaier · 11-27-2014, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by number22

run depmond -a in /tmp/slint-20141122/initrd/lib/modules/3.10.17/ to update its modules depend file.
if you run echo -e "\a" in xterm, make sure visual bell is off.

Thanks for the suggestion. While you wrote I edited my first post: I ran that command in the installer itself (in a tty, no visual bell there), still no luck.

PS I get the beep in an installed Slackware 14.1, so that's not a hardware or BIOS issue.

number22 · 11-27-2014, 03:57 PM

check your alsamixer, is it muted by alsa?

Didier Spaier · 11-27-2014, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by number22

check your alsamixer, is it muted by alsa?

No alsa in the installer. Not even the module soundcore.

number22 · 11-27-2014, 04:21 PM

setterm -blength 200
setterm -bfreq 760

jtsn · 11-27-2014, 04:38 PM

Most modern legacy-free PCs don't have pcspkr support anymore. So even if you achieve a beep on a specific configuration, it most likely won't work on the next machine. My recommandation: Let the installer load sound drivers, then play a waveform through the audio device (cat whatever.au > /dev/audio).

genss · 11-27-2014, 04:39 PM

as a backup plan

play -n synth 0.2 tri 760

jtsn · 11-27-2014, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by genss

play -n synth 0.2 tri 760

That needs sox in the installer image.

Didier Spaier · 11-27-2014, 05:25 PM

Progress report: at first this command didn't help:

Code:

setterm -blength 200 -bfreq 760

But then I realized that I was in a framebuffer drawn by fbterm (/dev/pts/0). Doing the same after going back to a plain Linux tty typing "exit" worked. That's good enough as long as there is a support for pcspkr, as anyway I know that brltty doesn't work in a framebuffer if drawn by a userland console drawer like fbterm. So thanks number22 for the tip. At least I won't have to install kmod in the installer. That's not heavy, but still (at second thought I'll still need modprobe, maybe).

But I think that, as jtsn suggested, I should play a sound through the sound card in addition. I will try that tomorrow (I will need to add the modules in the installer) and will report the outcome.

PS I will try not to use sox, as according to ldd the binary has a lot of dependencies not shipped in the installer.

PPS Actually, as long as a regular tty is in use the setterm command is not even necessary. Oh, well...