Installing beep

This document describes how to install beep from sources and how to set up the system afterwards.

If you are using beep as shipped in a binary distribution package, that package should have done most of those steps for you. The one notable exception should be the step adding users to the beep group.

Build requirements

• GNU make
• clang or gcc
• Linux kernel headers

Compile and Install

The easy way is

[user@host beep]$ make
[user@host beep]$ make install

By default, make install will put the executable beep in /usr/local/bin. If you do not like this, set override the common GNU Makefile convention variables (prefix, bindir, docdir, htmldir, mandir, etc.) as appropriate, e.g.

[user@host beep]$ make prefix=$HOME/.local
[user@host beep]$ make prefix=$HOME/.local install

or

[user@host beep]$ cat>local.mk<<EOF
CC = clang
prefix = \$(HOME)/.local
EOF
[user@host beep]$ make
[user@host beep]$ make install
[user@host beep]$ make install-html

or

[user@host beep]$ make
[user@host beep]$ make DESTDIR=$PWD/__installroot install

For the complete list of those variables, see the top of GNUmakefile.

Some more compilation related variables mostly useful for distribution packagers are documented in PACKAGING.md.

System configuration

• The Linux kernel driver pcspkr must be loaded to provide access to the PC speaker via the evdev and console APIs.

• To have the system load the pcspkr kernel module by default during each system boot, add a line

  alias platform:pcspkr pcspkr

  to a modprobe config file, like e.g. /etc/modprobe.d/pcspkr-beep.conf.

• To load the pcspkr kernel module right now without needing to boot, run

  modprobe pcspkr

  To unload the pcspkr driver again, run

  modprobe -r pcspkr

• Set up the udev rules which set the device special file permissions for non-root users according to PERMISSIONS.md.

  You can test whether the permission setup work by unloading and then loading the pcspkr kernel module, as loading the module will cause all the udev rules to run.

• On some systems with integrated speakers like e.g. laptops from the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad series, there is no separate physical speaker for the PC speaker.

  Instead, the square wave sound generated by the PC speaker goes to the integrated speakers through a mixer chip, where it is mixed with PCM sound, CD drive audio, line in, microphone in, and other sources.

  On these systems, you might need to configure the mixer to make the PC speaker audible through the laptop speakers, e.g.

  • Start alsamixer.
  • Find the correct card (switch with the F6 key).
  • Maybe enable loopback.
  • Unmute the appropriate PC speaker source (m key) and turn up its volume.
  • Weirdly, a microphone volume below 0% apparently can also silence the PC speaker beeps.

  Some experimentation might be required.

  Of course, these mixer settings must be saved before the next system reboot so that the reboot can restore the mixer settings. Some systems save the mixer settings as part of their shutdown procedure, others may need you to save them explicitly.