[SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

Binabik · 2017-04-20 16:42:37

Hi, some actions in Xfce produce an annoying "beep" sound which shall point out that something does not work, e.g. if I am at the topmost item in Thunar and press "arrow up", this "beep" occurs. But this beep is most probably produced by something in Xfce because I can also trigger it in other applications. The most annoying about this sound is that it completely ignores all audio settings, i.e. it always has full volume!

Normally, I am using pulseaudio so I guessed that this sound could ignore pulseaudio and be routed directly to alsa. So I installed alsa-utils and ran 'amixer set Master mute'. This mutes all other sounds but this beep sound is still produced.

Afterwards, I found out that this only holds true if I am outputting sound via the audio jack. If I am using the built-in laptop speakers, I can actually mute this sound.

Now, I am completely confused, to sum up:
- beep sound in different applications (using xfce desktop environment)
- mutable if built-in laptop speaker is used
- not mutable by pulse or alsa if audio jack output is used

Thanks for any replies.

Last edited by Binabik (2017-05-05 13:31:51)

x33a · 2017-04-20 16:52:11

Could it be the onboard speaker that's making the sound? Run the following and see if it still happens

# rmmod pcspkr

Binabik · 2017-04-21 07:53:08

Nice, that's the solution. Thank you so much!

Could someone explain to me what was happening there? Because you called it the "onboard speaker" but it was definitely output via the audio jack ...

Lone_Wolf · 2017-04-21 10:34:11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_speaker

The diagnostic functionality needs to work very early in the boot process.
Upon connecting something through the audio jack, electronics on your system disable the built-in speakers
and re-route the pc speaker functionality to the audio jack output.

Binabik · 2017-04-24 07:02:10

Okay, that's obvious. But the question remains: Why can it be disabled (by pulseaudio) if nothing is plugged in, why isn't that possible if an audio jack is plugged in?

Last edited by Binabik (2017-04-24 07:02:28)

Lone_Wolf · 2017-04-25 18:56:51

It's the pcspkr kernel module that allows the disabling/enabling , and afaik it has no code to change what's on the audio jack .

Arch Linux

#1 2017-04-20 16:42:37

[SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

#2 2017-04-20 16:52:11

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

#3 2017-04-21 07:53:08

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

#4 2017-04-21 10:34:11

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

#5 2017-04-24 07:02:10

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

#6 2017-04-25 18:56:51

Re: [SOLVED] Xfce has sound output even if audio output is muted in pulse

Board footer