Disabling the PC Speaker Beep

If you’re like me, you’re still working on your certification as a Linux God. Until graduation day comes around, and you throw your penguin-festooned mortar board into the air, you may find yourself seriously annoyed by that damned PC speaker beep. Apparently leftover from the pre-speaker world of ancient PC computing, this distinctly plaintive and accusatory beep sounds whenever you do something that you aren’t supposed to, including (but not limited to):

  • Trying to scroll down in a window that can’t scroll any further
  • Backspacing into text that doesn’t exist
  • Viewing the login screen
  • Pressing the up arrow too many times while in the terminal
  • Getting any password wrong, anywhere on the system
  • Attempting to do anything of value with your new Linux installation.
  • Looking at the machine the wrong way

Luckily, arsgeek.com has an excellent little tutorial on how to disable the PC speaker by editing the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file. Check it out here, and lose that awful beep until the next time that you’re forced to use the Unix lab at school.

Note: If you attempt to edit the blacklist file and cannot save it, it is because you are not in root mode. At the terminal prompt, type “su”, enter your root password, and then follow the instructions to edit the blacklist file.



5 Comments

  1. God damn do you remember when Ty and I first started using Ubuntu and mine kept beeping?

    I think D. Brown actually paused during one of his rants lectures to stare at me for making it beep.

    I was so happy when I found out how to disable it.

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