Comment 102 for bug 437429

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.