No GUI to configure/disable login sound

Sound theme sets one of the four alert sounds (bask, drip, glass or sonar). It does not change the system-ready sound.
One of the many workarounds to your wish is to go to (with root priviledge) the directory /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo and change the name of the file "dialog-question", for example to "dialog-question-backup".
Now the system-ready (drums) sound does play no more.

This is a regression. Can we get it fixed in time for Karmic?

Isn't this a GDM bug?

@Harry: i don't think that's a viable option for many reasons. You might actually want the sound for other purposes.

@MP: The problem as I see it is that there is no user accessible configuration for this any more. There was in Jaunty and earlier, but no longer in Karmic.

Hi Barry,
Well I never said my way is an option, I only offered a workaround.
I offered a way to set any sound for examle to "system-ready" sound, immediately.

This is not a bug, the karmic alfa-6 (and beta) are meant to be like this.
But yes, I also think that it is a fair wish to say that a proper GUI is needed here.

Hi Harry, gotcha and thanks for the workaround.

I do think it's a deficiency that needs to be addressed. I can understand the desire for fewer knobs for the login screen, but try booting a laptop surreptitiously during a talk and enduring the nasty stares. Like having your cell phone ringer on in the movie theater. :)

@Harry: This is most certainly a bug. A necessary and working function has been removed. This is a problem that is prevalent in the Linux community. Distros remove perfectly functioning programs and replace them with broken and insufficient replacements coupled with promises that the replacement will one day be just functional and stable as the prior working program. Regardless of the reasons for such actions, the result is that the end-users suffer.

I agree that this is a real issue, but ubuntu-sounds is certainly not the correct package. ubuntu-sounds is simply a sound theme and isn't responsible for any configuration. The bug could potentially be against gnome-media which provides the binary 'gnome-volume-control,' but I think the most likely candidate is GDM itself. This option should probably be added to an extended 'gdmsetup'

Thank you for your bug report. The issue is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME)

Ubuntu is not the one which rewrote gdm and the update has been delayed for over a year but the old version used old technologies so the update made sense before the lts coming next cycle, comments about what distro do or not is not really constructive there

Upstream bug has been created and linked: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=597731

I agree with Brian. Even more, users must have the ability to login silently *and/or* to customize the sound. This is available in the "Login Window" utility in jaunty but is a feature that has been removed in karmic. Requesting that we give back the power of sound customization to the user, both for system sounds (this bug) and session sounds ( Bug #324700 ).

In the meantime, could we remove the sound for Karmic? It provides no utility. We can add it back once upstream has resolved this issue.

I dont think removing the sound is ideal.
AFAIK , it is the same sound which is used for alerts... which ask for overwrite confirmation, when using the "Save as..." option and the same file name already exists.

I didn't mean to remove the sound file. I meant disabling GDM from playing the sound.

note that the sound is essential for visulally impaired people, its one part of the accessibility improvements we have over other distros. it should not be removed by default.

remember Ubuntu's not being useful in class room and library scenarios if you cannot disable the sounds!

@Oliver and Fabus: Both of those are excellent reasons to return to the previous version of GDM in Karmic until this issue can be resolved.

> Both of those are excellent reasons to return to the previous version of GDM in Karmic until this issue can be resolved.

those comments are not useful, there has been lot of testing and integration work during the cycle and you can't roll back to other technologies like that it would break suspend, hibernate, user switching etc and would require to rewrite several desktop components

you can try to use "sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gconftool-2 --set /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/settings-manager-plugins/sound/active --type bool false"

Another vote for NOT having this enabled by default - it should fall in the "Startup Sounds" category.
Wouldn't it just be a simple task to remove it in the code where it is now and then add it to where the "Startup Sounds" preferences work?

There is no reason for this - libraries and late night reboots are 100% proof!

FWIW , the "Alert volume" option controls the sounds for these sounds , you can set it to mute or lower the volume to any level.

I was able to remove the login sound (not the drums but the successful login sound) only by doing the following:

1) Go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications
2) Uncheck "GNOME Login Sound"
3) Right click the speaker icon (volume applet) and select "Sound Preferences"
4) In the "Sound Effects" change the "Sound Theme" to "No sounds"
5) Reboot

Result: No login sound

Note:
1) If you do not change the "Sound theme" to "No sounds", the "GNOME Login Sound" entry in "Startup Applications" will reactivate on its own.
2) I am guessing you would have to do this each user on the machine.

> 1) If you do not change the "Sound theme" to "No sounds", the "GNOME Login Sound" entry in "Startup Applications" will > reactivate on its own.

It sounds like this is the real bug then! While hidden, it's nice to see that this is possible. If it weren't reactivated each time, the bug would be solved.

I tryed "sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gconftool-2 --set /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/settings-manager-plugins/sound/active --type bool false"

but it didn't work for me.

"sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false"

work well and it relatively clean.

This bug is now addressing this issue:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-media/+bug/324700
I don't want to mark this as a dupe yet, and I also request that it be prioritized higher that "wishlist".
Thanks.

To be honest we almost need a sound management system that does for all the sounds like gnome art did for all the bling bling for the desktop. I agree that sounds should at least be able to be turned off, but on the other hand I'm one of those people that would like to customise the sound theme so I and pick which Ogg sound effects I want in place for each event.

It wouldn't be so bad if the sound effect didn't play 3 second before the login box even appeared. There isn't even a confusing command-line way to resolve this, it seems.

Setting the sound theme to No Sounds results in no sound notifications in Empathy too and god knows what else... This one here is royal. Please guys, please mod the sounds window with additional tab so we can select what to play and what not similar to what was existent in Jaunty. Alternatively please mod the Login Screen with a tick to remove this sound. Ideally both of these. According to my limited knowledge these are no hard tasks if you know the APIs being used. And you do. At least some of you do.

Afterwards when GNOME decides to wipe this shame upstream - just remove the hack and place the upstream version. If they release it in this cycle..

More generally, there's no GUI to customise GDM at all now. The login screen is not GUI-customisable with respect to theme, whether it uses a user list or requires typing in a username, etc., all of which was possible in Jaunty. The only option available is whether to log in automatically or not. I don't know why all that was removed. Even Windows XP is more configurable now!

Changing the file name of the login sound seemed to fix it, but that's a ugly kludge. I agree that the lack of GDM theming is pretty puzzling.

I think this is due to a problem at GNOME since they rewrote GDM and ... I guess ... did not have time/desire to write feature full configuration GUI. My guess is that they will write it for the next release. In the mean time - can anyone point me to documentation of how sound themes work so I can write a small GUI configurator?

Seb, I tried your command from message 21, but it did not turn of the gdm greeter sound.

However, the command by Cristi in https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+question/86630 did solve it for me. Happier now.

The startup drums sound is getting to be really annoying. Sometimes I forget to mute the sounds when turning off the laptop, and it gets really loud when booting up in quiet places. The lack of a way to configure this would have seemed like a show stopper for me. At least have a checkbox to disable the login and startup sounds, it doesn't have to be an interface to change it, just to disable it.

@Oliver -- I must respectfully disagree with you that the "login ready" sound should be on by default for accessibility reasons.

A visually impaired person would not be able to go through the Ubuntu installation process unassisted -- there are no sounds in Ubiquity. Whoever is setting up the system for a visually impaired person would easily be able to enable this sound (or the system manufacturer, in the case of a pre-loaded system).

In any case, the sound could be much more subtle or inconspicuous and serve the same purpose. Instead it sounds tacky, and from an HCI perspective it makes the Ubuntu startup process abrupt in many contexts that others have described (library, meetings, late night), rather than one that is natural and user-centric.

I have to challenge this as a design decision.

This has annoyed me greatly. After muting and lowering the Alert Volume to the lowest level, and changing /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sound to false, the drum sound still played.
Rather than figure out why none of these were working, I decided to just edit the file itself.

In /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/ there are two files that concern this:
 - dialog-question.ogg
 - system-ready.ogg -> dialog-question.ogg

After renaming the symlink file with
sudo mv system-ready.ogg NOsystem-ready.ogg
the sound did not play!

While this is a really bad and temporary solution, it was the only thing I could do to remove the sound until a better solution came along.

@Paul Heidelman
Renaming the files in /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/ is the only way to deactivate certain sounds without affecting the whole sound notification system. If you want to disable not the system-ready sound but the desktop-login sound an you do that by muting sound alerts or selecting No Sounds theme, then this will also disable any sound notifications in Empathy which is a serious problem.

2009/11/10 lightrush <email address hidden>:
> @Paul Heidelman
> Renaming the files in /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/ is the only way to deactivate certain sounds without affecting the whole >sound notification system.

I would say the opposite - renaming files will surely affect your
whole system sounds.
You should just use the solution from one of the above comments:

try:
sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gconftool-2 --set
/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/settings-manager-plugins/sound/active --type
bool false
or:
sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gconftool-2 --set
/desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false

--
## Przemysław Kulczycki >><< Azrael Nightwalker ##
# jabber: azrael[na]jabster.pl | tlen: azrael29a #
### www: http://reksio.ftj.agh.edu.pl/~azrael/ ###

Those seeking a GUI workaround, there is a solution! You just need to
pick a different sound theme. Unfortunately there's next to no
selection, but you can install the package sound-theme-freedesktop
(the one Fedora uses), which is VERY tastefully done. Ubuntu's is a
tad out of date vs. Fedora (no pop sound when you adjust volume,
mainly), but the login sound is recorded at a sane volume and a bit
shorter.

Right now there's a big chunk of GUI to configure the alert sound from
the sound preferences. Seems a bit arbitrary; definitely could use
some review to decide which sound options are most important to
people. Maybe a nice way to fix this would be to identify the priority
of sounds done via Canberra and give the user an option for whether he
wants low priority ones.

I have been using the PPA of this project: https://launchpad.net/gdm2setup/ It fixes the sound problem and has several other features.

As of today I still hear "drums" at login. I cannot have this sound playing in the middle of meetings, yet this is still impossible to mute without the command line.

I consider this very grave and sad - it's major regression from gdm1, as this one was fully configurable and gdm2 is a mere shadow of it. Furthermore I'm running now Lucid, which is an LTS, so LTS users have to bear it for the next 3 years. It clearly shows for me, that this project is seriously missing some business attitude in regard to usability. This thing here is not a paper-cut, it's a darn samurai-sword-cut!

On Sat, 2010-02-27 at 15:26 +0000, Philipp Morger wrote:
> I consider this very grave and sad - it's major regression from gdm1, as
> this one was fully configurable and gdm2 is a mere shadow of it.
> Furthermore I'm running now Lucid, which is an LTS, so LTS users have to
> bear it for the next 3 years. It clearly shows for me, that this project
> is seriously missing some business attitude in regard to usability. This
> thing here is not a paper-cut, it's a darn samurai-sword-cut!
>
Comments like that aren't helpful in the slightest. What the project is
missing is some man-power to implement the changes needed. We know that
the feature is missing, we want to be able to implement it and we know
that users want the feature too - we don't need people like you writing
unhelpful comments like this.

Next time: Don't implement things, that aren't ready for production (read: half-baked). Otherwise you'll get tons of mad users.

If you don't get tons of mad users, it's either because they don't care, or because there is no user-base or because of people like you who try to shut people mouth just because they say what's going wrong.

I could have simply said "me 2" or "+1", but I considered it would be more helpful for does people who just think "WHOA, latest is greatest" that it might have some implications, which they didn't consider - so I spelled it out for them, so they might reconsider next time.

And like in all things, the more people scream for a solution, the faster usually business attends to it - you usually don't get a solution for something that doesn't impose a problem first hand.

BTW: I forgot to add, that it's a lousy idea to play a sound when a maschine is ready to log in, imagine an open office of 30 workstation between 8:00 and 8:10 am. I consider it a thing that should not have been copied from Mac, Win et. al. in the first place. So if you would ask me, I would vote for completely rid of the code that plays any sound when a maschine boots.

regards
Philipp

The real question is; who actually likes login sounds? I can see
maybe the first time you login after installing Ubuntu, or maybe the
first time after upgrading to a new release, but EVERY SINGLE TIME you
log in? Why is that even remotely desirable?

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 10:59 AM, Philipp Morger
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Next time: Don't implement things, that aren't ready for production
> (read: half-baked). Otherwise you'll get tons of mad users.
>
> If you don't get tons of mad users, it's either because they don't care,
> or because there is no user-base or because of people like you who try
> to shut people mouth just because they say what's going wrong.
>
> I could have simply said "me 2" or "+1", but I considered it would be
> more helpful for does people who just think "WHOA, latest is greatest"
> that it might have some implications, which they didn't consider - so I
> spelled it out for them, so they might reconsider next time.
>
> And like in all things, the more people scream for a solution, the
> faster usually business attends to it - you usually don't get a solution
> for something that doesn't impose a problem first hand.
>
> BTW: I forgot to add, that it's a lousy idea to play a sound when a
> maschine is ready to log in, imagine an open office of 30 workstation
> between 8:00 and 8:10 am. I consider it a thing that should not have
> been copied from Mac, Win et. al. in the first place. So if you would
> ask me, I would vote for completely rid of the code that plays any sound
> when a maschine boots.
>
> regards
> Philipp
>
> --
> No GUI to configure/disable login sound
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/437429
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in GDM: The Gnome Display Manager: Unknown
> Status in “gdm” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “ubuntu-sounds” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> ==============
> WORKAROUNDS
> ==============
> NOTE: These workarounds disable the "system ready" sound (the drums). They will not disable the "successful login" and "logout" sounds. Go to Settings -> Sounds and set the sound theme to "no sounds" to disable these.
>
> 1) Disable all sounds for the login screen via gconf
> $ sudo su gdm -c "gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false"
>
> -OR-
>
> 2) Rename the system-ready.ogg sound file
> $ sudo mv -v /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg{,.disabled}
>
> ==============
> BUG
> ==============
> When you log into Karmic using a Gnome session, you get a drum sound.  There are many situations where you need a silent boot process, but it appears that this is impossible under Karmic.
>
> In Jaunty and previous, you could configure gdm to log you in silently.  This configuration has been removed from Karmic.  Even opening Sound Preferences and choosing "No sounds" for "Sound theme" or disabling window and button sounds does not prevent the login sound from occurring.
>
> Users must have the ability to login silently.
>
> Package: xsplash 0.8.1-0ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.36-generic
> SourcePackage: xsplash
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic x8...

To answer your question - I like login sounds :P.

I guess that some people do, and some people dont. So should it not be an
option during installation?

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Ben <email address hidden> wrote:

> The real question is; who actually likes login sounds? I can see
> maybe the first time you login after installing Ubuntu, or maybe the
> first time after upgrading to a new release, but EVERY SINGLE TIME you
> log in? Why is that even remotely desirable?
>
> On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 10:59 AM, Philipp Morger
> <email address hidden> wrote:
> > Next time: Don't implement things, that aren't ready for production
> > (read: half-baked). Otherwise you'll get tons of mad users.
> >
> > If you don't get tons of mad users, it's either because they don't care,
> > or because there is no user-base or because of people like you who try
> > to shut people mouth just because they say what's going wrong.
> >
> > I could have simply said "me 2" or "+1", but I considered it would be
> > more helpful for does people who just think "WHOA, latest is greatest"
> > that it might have some implications, which they didn't consider - so I
> > spelled it out for them, so they might reconsider next time.
> >
> > And like in all things, the more people scream for a solution, the
> > faster usually business attends to it - you usually don't get a solution
> > for something that doesn't impose a problem first hand.
> >
> > BTW: I forgot to add, that it's a lousy idea to play a sound when a
> > maschine is ready to log in, imagine an open office of 30 workstation
> > between 8:00 and 8:10 am. I consider it a thing that should not have
> > been copied from Mac, Win et. al. in the first place. So if you would
> > ask me, I would vote for completely rid of the code that plays any sound
> > when a maschine boots.
> >
> > regards
> > Philipp
> >
> > --
> > No GUI to configure/disable login sound
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/437429
> > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> > of the bug.
> >
> > Status in GDM: The Gnome Display Manager: Unknown
> > Status in “gdm” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> > Status in “ubuntu-sounds” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> >
> > Bug description:
> > ==============
> > WORKAROUNDS
> > ==============
> > NOTE: These workarounds disable the "system ready" sound (the drums).
> They will not disable the "successful login" and "logout" sounds. Go to
> Settings -> Sounds and set the sound theme to "no sounds" to disable these.
> >
> > 1) Disable all sounds for the login screen via gconf
> > $ sudo su gdm -c "gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds
> --type bool false"
> >
> > -OR-
> >
> > 2) Rename the system-ready.ogg sound file
> > $ sudo mv -v /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg{,.disabled}
> >
> > ==============
> > BUG
> > ==============
> > When you log into Karmic using a Gnome session, you get a drum sound.
> There are many situations where you need a silent boot process, but it
> appears that this is impossible under Karmic.
> >
> > In Jaunty and previous, you could configure gdm to log you in silently.
> This configuration has been removed from Karmic. ...

Does anyone know what the status of this bug is for Lucid?

it's the same in lucid

I hope this gets solved somehow. the whole login window pereferences options have been removed - on 8.10, one could still set the login screen preferences easily via System -> Preferences -> Login Screen Settings - now the only single option is to specify if someone would be logged in automatically.

no options to set the login theme, sounds, anything..

The volume of the drum is very often too loud and I tried 5 different ways of disabling it without success before I found this bug. I would love to see this fixed for Lucid.

Why reinventing the wheel? There is a configuration tool that offers the possibility to disable Loginsounds:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1358026

http://www.webupd8.org/2009/12/gdm-2-gui-configuration-tool-ubuntu.html

The tool you list is known and being review for universe but has design issues and limitations and not something we want to start using at beta time and the user interface and feature freezes for this cycle.

This bug was fixed in the package gdm - 2.29.92-0ubuntu5

---------------
gdm (2.29.92-0ubuntu5) lucid; urgency=low

  [ Robert Ancell ]
  * debian/patches/09_gdmsetup.patch:
  * debian/patches/15_gdmsetup_default_session.patch:
  * debian/patches/09_gdmserver_sound_settings.patch:
    - Add startup sound configuration
    - Merged 15_gdmsetup_default_session.patch into 09_gdmsetup.patch

   [ Didier Roche ]
   * debian/patches/09_gdmserver_sound_settings.patch: (LP: #437429)
   * debian/patches/15_gdmsetup_default_session.patch:
     - add gconftool calls to get/set sound parameter
     - fix some wrong signal call and missing callback function
   * debian/patches/25_update_gconf_directories.patch:
     - readd $HOME/.gconf between default and mandatory to take changes
       into account
 -- Didier Roche <email address hidden> Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:11:33 +0100

On 03/24/2010 03:20 AM, Launchpad Bug Tracker wrote:
> This bug was fixed in the package gdm - 2.29.92-0ubuntu5
>
> ---------------
> gdm (2.29.92-0ubuntu5) lucid; urgency=low
>
> [ Robert Ancell ]
> * debian/patches/09_gdmsetup.patch:
> * debian/patches/15_gdmsetup_default_session.patch:
> * debian/patches/09_gdmserver_sound_settings.patch:
> - Add startup sound configuration
> - Merged 15_gdmsetup_default_session.patch into 09_gdmsetup.patch
>
> [ Didier Roche ]
> * debian/patches/09_gdmserver_sound_settings.patch: (LP: #437429)
> * debian/patches/15_gdmsetup_default_session.patch:
> - add gconftool calls to get/set sound parameter
> - fix some wrong signal call and missing callback function
> * debian/patches/25_update_gconf_directories.patch:
> - readd $HOME/.gconf between default and mandatory to take changes
> into account
> -- Didier Roche <email address hidden> Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:11:33 +0100
>
> ** Changed in: gdm (Ubuntu Lucid)
> Status: Triaged => Fix Released
>

Thank you!

Something about this is still not right. I'm running Lucid beta, updated to current packages. I have "Play login sound" disabled in Login Screen Settings, and yet when I log in, I still get a login sound. This machine was a fresh install of Lucid, but instead of drum sounds on login, I'm getting the old music score.

disable from System/Preferences/Startup Applications/Gnome Login Sound

On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 3:21 PM, Barry Warsaw <email address hidden> wrote:

> Something about this is still not right. I'm running Lucid beta,
> updated to current packages. I have "Play login sound" disabled in
> Login Screen Settings, and yet when I log in, I still get a login sound.
> This machine was a fresh install of Lucid, but instead of drum sounds on
> login, I'm getting the old music score.
>
> --
> No GUI to configure/disable login sound
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/437429
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
> Artwork Team, which is subscribed to ubuntu-sounds in ubuntu.
>

Removing /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg worked for me, thanks. Now all is OK, drums completely disappear.

Why can't the stupid sound effect be turned off permanently from a nice readable, editable /etc/*.conf file?

Seems to be back with gdm (2.30.2-0ubuntu3). Just installed several 10.04.1 partitions and the drum sound can't be turned off via 'System|Preferences|Sound' or 'System/Preferences|Startup Applications|Gnome Login Sound'. I'm considering replacing '/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg' with the M$ Windows startup sound instead...

OK, this works:
<http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/07/disableturnoff-startup-booting-sound-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/>
I've found just changing System –> Administration –> Login Screen uncheck ‘Play login sound’ works & it's not necessary to modify ‘Gnome Login Sound’ in System –> Preferences –> Startup Applications.
Sorry for the added "noise".

This bug is also around in Maverick Meerkat :(

I wrote: "This bug is also around in Maverick Meerkat :("

Let me clarify:
* In System –> Administration –> Login Screen I have unchecked ‘Play login sound’
* In System –> Settings –> Sounds I have chosen the sound theme to "no sounds"

If user NoOp is right in comment #88 about unchecking 'Play login sound' fixes the problem in Lucid, then the behavior I report is a regression for Maverick Meerkat.

On 10/16/2010 02:42 PM, Jon Loldrup wrote:
> I wrote: "This bug is also around in Maverick Meerkat :("
>
> Let me clarify:
> * In System –> Administration –> Login Screen I have unchecked ‘Play login sound’
> * In System –> Settings –> Sounds I have chosen the sound theme to "no sounds"
>
> If user NoOp is right in comment #88 about unchecking 'Play login sound'
> fixes the problem in Lucid, then the behavior I report is a regression
> for Maverick Meerkat.
>

Don't know. I no longer install/test 10.10 due to
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/626974
[ABI change in xorg 1.9 breaks legacy nvidia-96 and nvidia-173 drivers
in Maverick]

When I can run 10.10 on my systems with nvidia-96 then I'll have another
look. Until then my systems will stay at 10.04.

I can confirm that this bug still exists in Ubuntu 10.10. I installed Ubuntu on a laptop and the sound still plays even though "Play login sound" is unchecked in the Login Screen Settings.

I wonder if there is some confusion here to what exactly is the "login sound". The double drums as the login screen appears is played (if at all) by gdm and is configured in System->Administration->Login Screen->Play login sound.

The sound tune played after you have successfully entered the password (and technically logged in) and your gnome session is starting, is a user setting in System->Preferences->Startup Applications->GNOME Login Sound.

I don't think there is any confusion. On a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10 the double drums play when the GDM login screen appears. Once the user logs in and goes to System->Administration->Login Screen->Play login sound the user can see that the option is unchecked, yet the double drums will continue to play when the login screen appears.

Successful login sound (Ubuntu theme) can be disabled (on Maverick 10.10) via:
rename desktop-login.ogg (/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo) to desktop-login.ogg_bak
for the drums
rename system-ready.ogg to system-ready.ogg_bak

It's a regression & should be fixed - the GUI methods do not work.
IMO these sounds should simply be *disabled* by default. Leaving them enabled is both irritating and seems to try to replicate (and aggrivate users) Windows with these silly startup & login/logout sounds. Nothing more embarassing than firing up your laptop in a college class, business meeting, etc., with sound way up and having everyone turn around and look at you while Ubuntu runs through it's silly drum roll & login theme. As mentioned in #87, perhaps I'll just replace with the Windows sounds instead... at least that way I can claim that I'm a poor Windows user that doesn't know how to turn off these sounds on my Windows OS.

I agree with NoOp: the sounds give an unprofessional, "dumbed down" impression.

There is a plan to create a new sound theme. Please see this blueprint (https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/design-m-sound-theme) and this bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-sounds/+bug/539169).

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 8:15 AM, Matt Perry <email address hidden> wrote:
> There is a plan to create a new sound theme. Please see this blueprint
> (https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/design-m-sound-theme) and
> this bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-
> sounds/+bug/539169).

Even if there is a plan for _new_ sounds, however pleasing they might
be, allowing for a user to opt for _no_ sounds should still be doable
without renaming files buried in /usr/share/sounds/.

--
Rob Palkowski
"Don't believe everything you think."
    —anon

This report has turned into a discussion forum, and the original issue "No GUI to configure/disable login sound" has been fixed and released, since there is a "System->Administration->Login Screen->Play login sound". If this option does not work for someone, please file a new bug using "ubuntu-bug gdm".

That option is working as expected, it disables the ubuntu login theme. However, drums are still played.

Same for me. Please disable this drum sound. It's annoying.

Bug appears to be due to the GUI representing the wrong default value. If there is no gconf key set for /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds the 'System -> Administration -> Login Screen' shows 'Play Login Sound' unchecked, but gconf reports true for the value.

To reproduce:

  # Unset the config key
  $ sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --unset /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds

  # gconf will now report true by default
  $ sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds
  true

  # However the call used by the ubuntu patched GDM will return 'no value'
  $ sudo gconftool-2 --direct -g /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --config-source=xml:readwrite:/var/lib/gdm/.gconf
  No value set for `/desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds'

  # Opening the 'System -> Administration -> Login Screen' will show 'Play Login Sound' as false

The file debian/patches/09_gdmserver_gconf_settings.patch contains the erroneous code, I'm afraid I don't really understand well enough what's going on there to provide a patch. I suspect that it's the default fall through value of false from gdm_settings_get_bool_gconf_value()

As a quick fix for users, simply checking and then unchecking the 'Play Login Sound' checkbox in the GUI will explicitly set the value to false, and the login drum sound should be disabled.

This feature is being requested repeatedly, in different forums. The issue is certainly not urgent or bad enough to merit attention from developers, but it _IS_ annoying.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/437429
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-utils/+bug/45739
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/114160
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=438707
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/mute-sound-on-login

I'm posting a comment to this one because it seems to be the one who is getting more attention. But it seems like there are different interpretations for the 'silent boot' issue: i) a problem with GDM (how to set up a silent login); ii) a more general issue with Ubuntu (make it respond to the 'mute button' present in laptops).

Ubuntu will keep its annoying status for the foreseeable future if this is not addressed.

Almost all laptops sold nowadays have mute buttons. All laptop owners sooner or later will come across that moment when you wish your laptop would respond to the mute button. When reading in a silent library, in class, when listening to someone else's presentation, or at 4 am in the morning when the rest of the house is fast asleep.

Read the other bug reports on this issue. Windows allows you to mute the laptop during the boot/startup process. And so does the Mac OS on their laptops.

In my case (Dell XPS M1210, Ubuntu 10), the mute button works late during the boot process. The machine starts responding to it halfway after starting the login process in gdm ... with unpredictable results (sometimes during the greeting sound from my gnome session, sometimes after that).

I don't care whether the mute button in my laptop actually triggers a gdm conf change, or if it does its magic at a lower level (sound system). I just want the damn laptop to be quiet!

The proposed solution of having a GUI to configure this is useless in many situations, because you often realize too late that you'd like a silent startup (shut down the laptop last night without considering where your next boot will be).

Different but reports make attempts at identifying the culprit (gdm, alsa) and in setting some aims and deliverables. The configuration tweaks one can make in gdm are OK for desktops, but although they may have the same final result (no sound on login) they do not address the other main issue with laptops: making Ubuntu respond to the mute button.

We need to raise the status of this issue. This particular bug report is about GDM, maybe we have to take this somewhere else? pulseaudio? the kernel? I'm pretty ignorant about these myself, so please bare with me, but I think this issue can't go on like this ... Windows has been responding to the mute button in laptops since Windows 95!

Natty responds to sound control buttons much faster than in Lucid or Maverick on my laptop. Could anyone check if this is still an issue in Natty?

@FernanAguero: this bug is about a particular issue, do not request something else here.
@Sergey: the original bug's problem still persists.

I will re-open this, because it regressed, at least for Natty.

I guess https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/437429/comments/102 explains it the best.

Sorry, will close this again: the GUI is there after all, and it's just that you have enable and then disable it to make it work.

See bug 778569 about that.

I wish this was more like Windows 7. See "Play Windows Startup Sound" :
http://neartalk.com/ss/2015-06-08_004_1294x554.png