PC speaker not beeping properly

cs127 · 2023-08-05 08:32:36

Hi everyone!

Recently I got a new computer. The motherboard is an ASUS Prime Z790-P. I can post more details if needed.
When the motherboard speaker is supposed to beep, it only plays two clicks, with no audible sound in between the clicks.
The clicks happen at the start and end of the supposed beep, and if I increase the length of the beep, I just get a longer delay between the two clicks.
This affects the "beep" program, TTY beeps, and X11 beeps, and probably anything else that tries to get the PC speaker to beep in Linux.

Outside of Linux (e.g. in DOS and GRUB), the speaker beeps just fine.

How do I fix this?

2023-08-06 EDIT: weird workaround: the speaker works fine after waking the PC up from sleep.

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-06 17:22:39)

twelveeighty · 2023-08-05 16:05:55

Try the instructions listed in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PC_speaker#ALSA on how to *unmute* the speaker. However, if you currently still hear some audible clicking sound, something else may be happening.

cs127 · 2023-08-05 16:28:32

twelveeighty wrote:

Try the instructions listed in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PC_speaker#ALSA on how to *unmute* the speaker. However, if you currently still hear some audible clicking sound, something else may be happening.

I tried both amixer and alsamixer. Neither of them had a PC speaker control.

seth · 2023-08-05 17:06:46

amixer -D hw:0

cs127 · 2023-08-06 11:41:31

seth wrote:

amixer -D hw:0

Nope, nothing related to the PC speaker/beeper shows up.

Here's the full output (if it helps):

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono: Playback 55 [63%] [-24.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 2 [67%] [20.00dB]
  Front Right: 2 [67%] [20.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 63
  Front Left: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 63
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-17.25dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-17.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'
Simple mixer control 'Channel Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: '2ch' '4ch' '6ch'
  Item0: '2ch'
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Front Mic' 'Rear Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Front Mic' 'Rear Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Loopback Mixing',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'
Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-06 11:42:56)

seth · 2023-08-06 11:53:31

Sanity check:

lsmod | grep pcspkr

cs127 · 2023-08-06 13:35:13

seth wrote:

Sanity check:
lsmod | grep pcspkr

Output:

pcspkr                 12288  0

seth · 2023-08-06 13:40:51

Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

cs127 · 2023-08-06 13:43:27

seth wrote:

Please post your complete system journal for the boot:
sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

http://0x0.st/H_86.txt

seth · 2023-08-06 13:59:18

Aug 06 17:03:16 aoi systemd[862]: Listening on PipeWire Multimedia System Socket.
Aug 06 17:03:21 aoi systemd[950]: Listening on PipeWire Multimedia System Socket.
Aug 06 17:03:22 aoi systemd[950]: Starting PulseAudio Sound System...
Aug 06 17:03:22 aoi systemd[950]: Started PulseAudio Sound System.
Aug 06 17:03:22 aoi dbus-daemon[690]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.RealtimeKit1' unit='rtkit-daemon.service' requested by ':1.43' (uid=1000 pid=1234 comm="/usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=jo")
Aug 06 17:03:22 aoi pulseaudio[1234]: stat('/etc/pulse/default.pa.d'): No such file or directory
Aug 06 17:03:23 aoi plasmashell[1066]: org.kde.plasma.pulseaudio: No object for name "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor"
Aug 06 17:03:31 aoi systemd[862]: Closed PipeWire Multimedia System Socket.

There's some oddity wrt the sound daemon setup.

You're starting pulsenoaudio, but it fails and you're also listening on pipewire sockets.
Not saying this is the cause, but…

pacman -Qs 'pulse|pipe'

Edit: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PipeWi … io_clients

Last edited by seth (2023-08-06 13:59:32)

cs127 · 2023-08-06 14:15:36

I replaced pulseaudio with pipewire-pulse, but there's no difference.

Additional info:

Output of pacman -Qs 'pulse|pipe' before installing pipewire-pulse:

local/gtk-vnc 1.3.1-1
    VNC viewer widget for GTK
local/kpipewire 5.27.7-1 (plasma)
    Components relating to pipewire use in Plasma
local/libcanberra 1:0.30+r2+gc0620e4-3
    A small and lightweight implementation of the XDG Sound Theme Specification
local/libpipeline 1.5.7-1
    a C library for manipulating pipelines of subprocesses in a flexible and convenient way
local/libpipewire 1:0.3.76-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - client library
local/libpulse 16.1-6
    A featureful, general-purpose sound server (client library)
local/pipewire 1:0.3.76-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor
local/pipewire-media-session 1:0.4.2-2
    Legacy session manager for PipeWire (deprecated)
local/plasma-pa 5.27.7-1 (plasma)
    Plasma applet for audio volume management using PulseAudio
local/pulseaudio 16.1-6
    A featureful, general-purpose sound server
local/pulseaudio-alsa 1:1.2.7.1-2
    ALSA Configuration for PulseAudio
local/qemu-audio-pa 8.0.3-1
    QEMU PulseAudio audio driver

Output of pacman -Qs 'pulse|pipe' after installing pipewire-pulse:

local/gtk-vnc 1.3.1-1
    VNC viewer widget for GTK
local/kpipewire 5.27.7-1 (plasma)
    Components relating to pipewire use in Plasma
local/libcanberra 1:0.30+r2+gc0620e4-3
    A small and lightweight implementation of the XDG Sound Theme Specification
local/libpipeline 1.5.7-1
    a C library for manipulating pipelines of subprocesses in a flexible and convenient way
local/libpipewire 1:0.3.76-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - client library
local/libpulse 16.1-6
    A featureful, general-purpose sound server (client library)
local/pipewire 1:0.3.76-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor
local/pipewire-audio 1:0.3.76-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - Audio support
local/pipewire-media-session 1:0.4.2-2
    Legacy session manager for PipeWire (deprecated)
local/pipewire-pulse 1:0.3.76-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - PulseAudio replacement
local/plasma-pa 5.27.7-1 (plasma)
    Plasma applet for audio volume management using PulseAudio
local/pulseaudio-alsa 1:1.2.7.1-2
    ALSA Configuration for PulseAudio
local/qemu-audio-pa 8.0.3-1
    QEMU PulseAudio audio driver

System journal after installing pipewire-pulse:

http://0x0.st/H_8R.txt

seth · 2023-08-06 14:24:18

The only question is whether that had discernable impact on the pcspkr situation…

cs127 · 2023-08-06 14:30:40

Nothing seemed to change after installing pipewire-pulse.

One thing I can say (and should have said earlier ) is that this doesn't only affect my current installation of Arch.

I tried the live environment of Arch, and even Debian, both in UEFI and BIOS mode. Still the same clicking issue (speaker plays a click at the start and end of the beep, but the beep itself is silent).

As I said before, this only affects Linux. The init tune of GRUB plays perfectly, and even DOS works correctly. And this is the only computer I've ever had this issue on.

EDIT:

So far I had only tried beeps, and not arbitrary PCM audio.

Well, now I installed snd-pcsp-dkms from the AUR, and when I try to play audio through it, it makes rapid clicking / creaking noises during the louder parts of the audio file.
You can somewhat recognize the sound by the rhythm of the clicks if you've heard the sound before, but that's pretty much it. Just weird clicking and creaking noises. No proper sound.

So... pretty much the same problem.

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-06 14:48:11)

seth · 2023-08-06 14:57:30

The handover from the firmware to the OS probably fails

ASUS System Product Name/PRIME Z790-P, BIOS 0806 11/22/2022

Are there any BIOS/UEFI updates available for the board?

cs127 · 2023-08-06 15:59:34

seth wrote:

The handover from the firmware to the OS probably fails
ASUS System Product Name/PRIME Z790-P, BIOS 0806 11/22/2022
Are there any BIOS/UEFI updates available for the board?

Turns out that there were BIOS updates, so I updated my BIOS.

...and still no difference.

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-06 15:59:50)

seth · 2023-08-06 16:04:19

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters :

acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windo … inacpi-osi

But then I'm out of ideas (tbh, I just blacklist the pcspkr and use different kinds of bells wherever I actually want them)

cs127 · 2023-08-06 16:29:45

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters :
acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windo … inacpi-osi
But then I'm out of ideas (tbh, I just blacklist the pcspkr and use different kinds of bells wherever I actually want them)

The kernel parameters didn't work either

But thanks for the help anyway!

I'm gonna keep messing around and I'll post a new reply if I find anything interesting.

cs127 · 2023-08-06 17:18:51

I found something interesting!

Someone on reddit had the exact same issue. I don't know how I didn't find this earlier.

It turns out that the speaker works fine after waking the PC up from sleep!
But obviously after the next reboot it stops working properly again until it goes back to sleep and then wakes up.

Does anyone here know if there's a way to fix this?

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-06 17:23:18)

seth · 2023-08-06 18:55:50

Try whether merely re-loading the pcspkr module works as well.

cs127 · 2023-08-06 23:50:25

seth wrote:

Try whether merely re-loading the pcspkr module works as well.

If by "reloading" you mean rmmod and then modprobe, then no. It doesn't work

After a fresh reboot (with no sleeps), it doesn't work, even after a reload.
After waking up from sleep, it works, and continues to work after a reload.

Unless you mean something different by "reload".

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-07 02:47:14)

seth · 2023-08-07 05:51:45

Yes meant (in case this was just some race condition and the module loads too early)

Because of "DOS" and there was previously mentioned a windows iso, there doesn't happen to be a parallel windows installation, does there?

cs127 · 2023-08-07 08:25:08

Nope, there's only Arch Linux installed.

I also didn't install DOS, I only tested it in a live environment (FreeDOS 1.3 btw).

Last edited by cs127 (2023-08-07 08:29:16)

chopin1998 · 2023-11-09 01:47:31

cs127 wrote:

Hi everyone!
Recently I got a new computer. The motherboard is an ASUS Prime Z790-P. I can post more details if needed.
When the motherboard speaker is supposed to beep, it only plays two clicks, with no audible sound in between the clicks.
The clicks happen at the start and end of the supposed beep, and if I increase the length of the beep, I just get a longer delay between the two clicks.
This affects the "beep" program, TTY beeps, and X11 beeps, and probably anything else that tries to get the PC speaker to beep in Linux.
Outside of Linux (e.g. in DOS and GRUB), the speaker beeps just fine.
How do I fix this?

2023-08-06 EDIT: weird workaround: the speaker works fine after waking the PC up from sleep.

true, same asus z790-p as your.

buzzer work again after sleep....

reviewed kernel pcspkr.c, don't know why...

Arch Linux

#1 2023-08-05 08:32:36

PC speaker not beeping properly

#2 2023-08-05 16:05:55

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#3 2023-08-05 16:28:32

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#4 2023-08-05 17:06:46

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#5 2023-08-06 11:41:31

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#6 2023-08-06 11:53:31

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#7 2023-08-06 13:35:13

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#8 2023-08-06 13:40:51

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#9 2023-08-06 13:43:27

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#10 2023-08-06 13:59:18

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#11 2023-08-06 14:15:36

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#12 2023-08-06 14:24:18

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#13 2023-08-06 14:30:40

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#14 2023-08-06 14:57:30

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#15 2023-08-06 15:59:34

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#16 2023-08-06 16:04:19

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#17 2023-08-06 16:29:45

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#18 2023-08-06 17:18:51

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#19 2023-08-06 18:55:50

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#20 2023-08-06 23:50:25

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#21 2023-08-07 05:51:45

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#22 2023-08-07 08:25:08

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

#23 2023-11-09 01:47:31

Re: PC speaker not beeping properly

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