Loud PC speaker beep during reboot, sometimes

[Kamil Paral]

Completely randomly, my laptop sometimes emits a loud PC speaker beep while
rebooting/powering off Fedora 37. The beep is very strong, and as a PC
speaker sound, it of course ignores any configured volume level, mute
status, and even headphones plugged in. I fortunately am in a different
room than the rest of my family sleeps in, but if I were in the same room,
and were I just a regular user, this would probably be the last day of
Fedora on that laptop. The beep is that loud and uncomfortable, especially
at night.

I wonder if somebody else running F37 noticed it as well? Any hints what
might cause it and how we can fix it? It never happened on F36 on the same
laptop.

Thanks,
Kamil

[Sean Mottles]

I imagine this is the “pcspkr” kernel module which seems to be loaded by default (verified
with the F37 Beta Workstation ISO in QEMU)

>  
>  On Sep 22, 2022, at 10:42, Kamil Paral <kparal(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  
>  
>  Completely randomly, my laptop sometimes emits a loud PC speaker beep while
> rebooting/powering off Fedora 37. The beep is very strong, and as a PC speaker sound, it
> of course ignores any configured volume level, mute status, and even headphones plugged
> in. I fortunately am in a different room than the rest of my family sleeps in, but if I
> were in the same room, and were I just a regular user, this would probably be the last day
> of Fedora on that laptop. The beep is that loud and uncomfortable, especially at night.
>  
>  I wonder if somebody else running F37 noticed it as well? Any hints what might cause it
> and how we can fix it? It never happened on F36 on the same laptop.
>  
>  Thanks,
>  Kamil
>  
>  _______________________________________________
>  test mailing list -- test(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  To unsubscribe send an email to test-leave(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
>  List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
>  List Archives:
> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
>  Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

[stan]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:41:18 +0200
Kamil Paral <kparal(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:

>  Completely randomly, my laptop sometimes emits a loud PC speaker
> beep
>  while rebooting/powering off Fedora 37. The beep is very strong, and
>  as a PC speaker sound, it of course ignores any configured volume
>  level, mute status, and even headphones plugged in. I fortunately am
>  in a different room than the rest of my family sleeps in, but if I
>  were in the same room, and were I just a regular user, this would
>  probably be the last day of Fedora on that laptop. The beep is that
>  loud and uncomfortable, especially at night.
>  
>  I wonder if somebody else running F37 noticed it as well? Any hints
>  what might cause it and how we can fix it? It never happened on F36
>  on the same laptop. 
alsa usually has the pc speaker disabled.  It has been a long time, but
I think there is a configuration option that can turn it on.  Is it
possible that you have somehow turned this on?

I found this in the arch linux documentation,

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

Globally

The PC speaker can be disabled by unloading the pcspkr kernel module:
Note: This will not disable your entire sound system, only the PC
speaker.

# rmmod pcspkr

Blacklisting the pcspkr module will prevent udev from loading it at
boot. Create the file:

/etc/modprobe.d/nobeep.conf

blacklist pcspkr

Blacklisting it on the kernel command line is yet another way. Simply
add modprobe.blacklist=pcspkr to your bootloader's kernel line. 


ALSA

For most sound cards the PC speaker is listed as an ALSA channel, named
either PC Speaker, PC Beep, or Beep. To mute the speaker, either use
alsamixer or amixer , for example:

$ amixer set 'PC Speaker' 0% mute

To unmute the channel, see Advanced Linux Sound Architecture#Unmuting
the channels. Tip: If you are using PulseAudio and the PC speaker
channel is not listed for the default ALSA device, try selecting the
device corresponding to the sound card - PulseAudio proxy controls may
not list the PC speaker.

[AV]

On Thu, 2022-09-22 at 10:41 +0200, Kamil Paral wrote:
>  Completely randomly, my laptop sometimes emits a loud PC speaker
> beep
>  while rebooting/powering off Fedora 37. The beep is very strong, and
>  as a PC speaker sound, it of course ignores any configured volume
>  level, mute status, and even headphones plugged in. I fortunately am
>  in a different room than the rest of my family sleeps in, but if I
>  were in the same room, and were I just a regular user, this would
>  probably be the last day of Fedora on that laptop. The beep is that
>  loud and uncomfortable, especially at night.
>  
>  I wonder if somebody else running F37 noticed it as well? Any hints
>  what might cause it and how we can fix it? It never happened on F36
>  on the same laptop. 
I experienced this 2 or 3 times (I think while installing fed 34 and
fed 35).
A very very loud screeching beep. I almost fell of my chair.
So I don't think it has anything specially to do with fed 37.
At the time I thought that something was wrong with the laptop or that
I had
done something not compatible with normal laptop use.
But as everything worked normally afterwards I forgot about it.
And I also forgot to lookup information about 'signals' related to
pc functioning.

Strange that you experience this randomly. Maybe fed 37 has activated
the pc speaker in a strange way
Stan demonstrates it can be turned off but unless this can be
demonstrated
to be a quirk of fed 37 I think I would like to know the cause.  .

AV

[Lukas Ruzicka]

I am also experiencing this behaviour, but as I used to hear computers
making any kinds of funny noises in the past, I am not bothered by this, so
I did not even notice it.
My laptops are Lenovo P1 and Lenovo T580. They both produce the beep sounds.

On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 2:28 AM AV via test <test(a)lists.fedoraproject.org&gt;
wrote:

>  On Thu, 2022-09-22 at 10:41 +0200, Kamil Paral wrote:
>
>  Completely randomly, my laptop sometimes emits a loud PC speaker beep
>  while rebooting/powering off Fedora 37. The beep is very strong, and as a
>  PC speaker sound, it of course ignores any configured volume level, mute
>  status, and even headphones plugged in. I fortunately am in a different
>  room than the rest of my family sleeps in, but if I were in the same room,
>  and were I just a regular user, this would probably be the last day of
>  Fedora on that laptop. The beep is that loud and uncomfortable, especially
>  at night.
>
>  I wonder if somebody else running F37 noticed it as well? Any hints what
>  might cause it and how we can fix it? It never happened on F36 on the same
>  laptop.
>
>
>  I experienced this 2 or 3 times (I think while installing fed 34 and fed
>  35).
>  A very very loud screeching beep. I almost fell of my chair.
>  So I don't think it has anything specially to do with fed 37.
>  At the time I thought that something was wrong with the laptop or that I
>  had
>  done something not compatible with normal laptop use.
>  But as everything worked normally afterwards I forgot about it.
>  And I also forgot to lookup information about 'signals' related to
>  pc functioning.
>
>  Strange that you experience this randomly. Maybe fed 37 has activated
>  the pc speaker in a strange way
>  Stan demonstrates it can be turned off but unless this can be demonstrated
>  to be a quirk of fed 37 I think I would like to know the cause.  .
>
>  AV
>  _______________________________________________
>  test mailing list -- test(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  To unsubscribe send an email to test-leave(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  Fedora Code of Conduct:
>  https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
>  List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
>  List Archives:
>  https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
>  Do not reply to spam, report it:
>  https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
>  

-- 

Lukáš Růžička

FEDORA QE, RHCE

Red Hat

<https://www.redhat.com>

Purkyňova 115

612 45 Brno - Královo Pole

lruzicka(a)redhat.com
TRIED AND PERSONALLY TESTED, ERGO TRUSTED. <https://redhat.com/trusted>

[stan]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:41:18 +0200
Kamil Paral <kparal(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:

>  Completely randomly, my laptop sometimes emits a loud PC speaker
> beep
>  while rebooting/powering off Fedora 37. The beep is very strong, and
>  as a PC speaker sound, it of course ignores any configured volume
>  level, mute status, and even headphones plugged in. I fortunately am
>  in a different room than the rest of my family sleeps in, but if I
>  were in the same room, and were I just a regular user, this would
>  probably be the last day of Fedora on that laptop. The beep is that
>  loud and uncomfortable, especially at night.
>  
>  I wonder if somebody else running F37 noticed it as well? Any hints
>  what might cause it and how we can fix it? It never happened on F36
>  on the same laptop. 
I forgot to reply to this part of the message.  I have been running F37
since it was rawhide, and have never heard this beep.  But, I'm running
a desktop, so that might make a difference.  And a question.  Are you
sure this is the PC speaker, and not something sending sound to the
sound device during startup?  Does the sound come from the speakers or
does it come from the internals of the PC?  The PC speaker is on the
MB, so should only be heard from inside the case.

I run a custom kernel, and I have the config options for the speaker
set as follows:

CONFIG_HAVE_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
# CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR is not set

I think the last option means the pcspkr is disabled.

If you go to /boot, and run the following on the last config file,
grep -i spk config-[kernelversion]
what does it show?

[Kamil Paral]

On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 5:13 PM stan via test <test(a)lists.fedoraproject.org&gt;
wrote:

>  I forgot to reply to this part of the message.  I have been running
> F37
>  since it was rawhide, and have never heard this beep.  But, I'm running
>  a desktop, so that might make a difference.  And a question.  Are you
>  sure this is the PC speaker, and not something sending sound to the
>  sound device during startup? 

It's during shutdown, not startup. Yes, I'm sure. It's the same sound as
when I want to go to UEFI config during startup or show a one-time boot
menu. The sound is unmistakable.


>  I run a custom kernel, and I have the config options for the speaker
>  set as follows:
>
>  CONFIG_HAVE_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
>  CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
>  # CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR is not set
>  
I have the stock Fedora kernel:

# grep -i pcspkr /boot/config-5.19.9-300.fc37.x86_64
CONFIG_HAVE_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR=m

I'm aware I could blacklist the pcspkr module, but I don't want to fix this
just for myself.

[Sérgio Basto]

On Fri, 2022-09-23 at 17:20 +0200, Kamil Paral wrote:
>  On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 5:13 PM stan via test
>  <test(a)lists.fedoraproject.org&gt; wrote:
>  > I forgot to reply to this part of the message.  I have been running
>  > F37
>  > since it was rawhide, and have never heard this beep.  But, I'm
>  > running
>  > a desktop, so that might make a difference.  And a question.  Are
>  > you
>  > sure this is the PC speaker, and not something sending sound to the
>  > sound device during startup? 
>  > 
>  
>  
>  It's during shutdown, not startup. Yes, I'm sure. It's the same sound
>  as when I want to go to UEFI config during startup or show a one-time
>  boot menu. The sound is unmistakable.
>   
>  > 
>  > I run a custom kernel, and I have the config options for the
>  > speaker
>  > set as follows:
>  > 
>  > CONFIG_HAVE_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
>  > CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
>  > # CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR is not set
>  > 
>  
>  
>  I have the stock Fedora kernel:
>  
>  # grep -i pcspkr /boot/config-5.19.9-300.fc37.x86_64 
>  CONFIG_HAVE_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
>  CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
>  CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR=m
>  
>  I'm aware I could blacklist the pcspkr module, but I don't want to fix this just
> for myself. 

I found this behavior on my Fedora 35 


grep -i pcspkr /boot/config-5.19.8-100.fc35.x86_64
CONFIG_HAVE_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM=y
CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR=m


-- 
Sérgio M. B.

[John Morris]

On Fri, 2022-09-23 at 08:13 -0700, stan via test wrote:
>  
>  I forgot to reply to this part of the message.  I have been running
>  F37
>  since it was rawhide, and have never heard this beep.  But, I'm
>  running
>  a desktop, so that might make a difference.  And a question.  Are you
>  sure this is the PC speaker, and not something sending sound to the
>  sound device during startup?  Does the sound come from the speakers or
>  does it come from the internals of the PC?  The PC speaker is on the
>  MB, so should only be heard from inside the case. 
It isn't nearly so simple.  The PC "squeeker" is ancient PC tech but
almost every sound chip has an input to route it into the rest of the
audio system and a mixer control to adjust it.  Almost every PC
motherboard also has a header to directly connect a speaker.  This
allows one to hear sounds created by the BIOS during POST, before the
modern audio chip is initialized.

Whether the motherboard or laptop actually connects the PC Speaker to
the audio codec is almost entirely random.  Whether anything is
connected to the raw "squeeker" pins is random but tending more toward
"not" every year that passes.

Not allowing Linux to load the pcspeaker module will stop Linux from
ever making a sound via that path but system level software running at
higher privilege than the main OS can and often does use the speaker,
over temp, fan failure, POST error, a happy beep at boot, all these
things can still make sounds and there is a speaker attached or if the
electrical connection is in place and the audio codec still has it
enabled as a machine reboots, you can get beeps.

About the only fix Linux could make is to ensure all audio channels are
muted as the system goes into shutdown, reboot, sleep or suspend.  That
still won't stop a directly connected beeper though.

[stan]

On Fri, 23 Sep 2022 14:50:37 -0500
John Morris <jmorris(a)beau.org&gt; wrote:

>  It isn't nearly so simple.  The PC "squeeker" is
> ancient PC tech but
>  almost every sound chip has an input to route it into the rest of the
>  audio system and a mixer control to adjust it.  Almost every PC
>  motherboard also has a header to directly connect a speaker.  This
>  allows one to hear sounds created by the BIOS during POST, before the
>  modern audio chip is initialized.
>  
>  Whether the motherboard or laptop actually connects the PC Speaker to
>  the audio codec is almost entirely random.  Whether anything is
>  connected to the raw "squeeker" pins is random but tending more toward
>  "not" every year that passes.
>  
>  Not allowing Linux to load the pcspeaker module will stop Linux from
>  ever making a sound via that path but system level software running at
>  higher privilege than the main OS can and often does use the speaker,
>  over temp, fan failure, POST error, a happy beep at boot, all these
>  things can still make sounds and there is a speaker attached or if the
>  electrical connection is in place and the audio codec still has it
>  enabled as a machine reboots, you can get beeps.
>  
>  About the only fix Linux could make is to ensure all audio channels
>  are muted as the system goes into shutdown, reboot, sleep or suspend.
>   That still won't stop a directly connected beeper though. 
Thanks for the information.  I hear no beeps ever, so my system must be
without any issues, or one of the random ones without a tie to the
onboard sound chip.

[Kamil Paral]

On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 9:51 PM John Morris <jmorris(a)beau.org&gt; wrote:

>  About the only fix Linux could make is to ensure all audio channels
> are
>  muted as the system goes into shutdown, reboot, sleep or suspend.  That
>  still won't stop a directly connected beeper though.
>  
You're making it sound as if I wanted to prevent firmware-caused beeps. I
don't. I'm pretty sure that the beep I'm complaining about is OS-caused,
and most likely systemd-caused. The links to other people's complaints
confirm my experience.