How to enable system sounds

Skaperen · 2024-09-10 00:35:34

no system sounds happen for me. so, i assume they are disabled. but i was not able to find how to enable them. i was looking for an xfce4terminal option for the bell character.

so, what should i do to enable system sounds? i do all my programming in xfc4terminal + bash + commands.

as for sounds, i'd like the sound of breaking glass for deleting a file or something. i have a song with such sounds. i am sure there are plenty of free sound effects online. i'd bet YouTube has plenty.

Last edited by Skaperen (2024-09-10 00:37:44)

ToZ · 2024-09-10 00:51:14

The thing to understand with Xfce is that sound support is only available via libcanberra (which supports the freedesktop sound spec). What this means is that if you want specific sounds for specific events, you will need to create your own sound theme, or find one that has the sounds you want. The Smooth sound theme is one of the most comprehensive sound themes I have come across.

To configure your system to support sounds, start with this thread. Post back any challenges you run into for further assistance.

Skaperen · 2024-09-12 00:26:49

i've had no sounds for years and not raised the issue. that shows how important they are to me. all i would like to get working right now is a short beep for the ASCII Alarm character being output. since output goes to the terminal emulator, i suspect it has to be involved for that sound. but i was unable to find any mention of how enable or disable support for that character for xfce4-terminal (which i am using). is xfce4-terminal just using that sound interface which is not running, so it just ignores the interface connection errors and moves on?

how should i start libcanberra for temporary (not to stay across logoff/login or reboot) and for permanent (to stay across logoff/login or reboot) under Xubuntu (a generic non-Ubuntu way, i assume)? it appears to be already installed (3 package: libcanberra-gtk3-0:amd64, ibcanberra-gtk3-module:amd64, libcanberra0:amd64 all version 0.30-7ubuntu1). i would have assumed a basic simple theme would already be active by default and let the user choose any theme (or none for silence). pavucontrol has a volume level slider for it under the Playback tab.

Skaperen · 2024-09-12 00:38:30

Xubuntu does not have something the linked libcanberra page used to show usage under Python:

>>> import gi
>>> gi.require_version('GSound', '1.0')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 129, in require_version
    raise ValueError('Namespace %s not available' % namespace)
ValueError: Namespace GSound not available
>>>

this stuff may not be needed. i was just going to see what i could do to make raw sound from programming. i guess i'll use C instead of Python.

Last edited by Skaperen (2024-09-12 00:45:50)

ToZ · 2024-09-12 20:22:25

Skaperen wrote:

i've had no sounds for years and not raised the issue. that shows how important they are to me. all i would like to get working right now is a short beep for the ASCII Alarm character being output. since output goes to the terminal emulator, i suspect it has to be involved for that sound. but i was unable to find any mention of how enable or disable support for that character for xfce4-terminal (which i am using). is xfce4-terminal just using that sound interface which is not running, so it just ignores the interface connection errors and moves on?

To get xfce4-terminal to use a system sound, see: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=12031.

how should i start libcanberra for temporary (not to stay across logoff/login or reboot) and for permanent (to stay across logoff/login or reboot) under Xubuntu (a generic non-Ubuntu way, i assume)?

Once you have it properly setup, you can enable/disable sounds via Settings Manager > Appearance > Settings > Event Sounds.

i would have assumed a basic simple theme would already be active by default and let the user choose any theme (or none for silence).

The basic simple default theme doesn't include many of the available sound effects.

Skaperen · 2024-09-13 01:16:15

> To get xfce4-terminal to use a system sound, see: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=12031.

everything mentioned in there is already set. no idea where to look, next. i am expecting a beep when i backspace at a shell when nothing is in its buffer, yet. that, or outputting an ASCII alarm character (i even wrote and compiled a tiny C program called "alarm" to do that as many times as a given number). so far no beep sound. i can get music and firefox to play from one userid (not the one i want to play stuff).

eriefisher · 2024-09-13 10:41:45

You seem to be having several sound issues but for the terminal, have you looked in the preferences/settings of the terminal itself? There is usually a checkbox to enable the bell. Most terminals have it somewhere.

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#1 2024-09-10 00:35:34

How to enable system sounds

#2 2024-09-10 00:51:14

Re: How to enable system sounds

#3 2024-09-12 00:26:49

Re: How to enable system sounds

#4 2024-09-12 00:38:30

Re: How to enable system sounds

#5 2024-09-12 20:22:25

Re: How to enable system sounds

#6 2024-09-13 01:16:15

Re: How to enable system sounds

#7 2024-09-13 10:41:45

Re: How to enable system sounds

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