[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#540831: blacklisting pcspkr ruins beep(1), and icewm' mail beep

[Gerfried Fuchs]

* Josh Triplett <josh at joshtriplett.org> [2009-09-03 09:21:31 CEST]:
> OK, for the sake of argument, I just ran a Google search for "pcspkr".
> First page of ten results:

 You should be aware that this is extremely biased because it is enabled
by default and there is an easy way to disable it, most of these threads
already do directly have the term "blacklist" in them. A pretty weak
argumentation line, if you ask me ...

> And that just came from the first page of Google search results.
> ~8.5/10 pages wanting pcspkr to go away.  Oh, and the "Searches related
> to: pcspkr" at the bottom?  "blacklist pcspkr", "rmmod pcspkr", "disable
> pcspkr"...

 Some others might want to have other things go away that are enabled by
default. Blacklisting it though does mean that it gets pretty hard for
those who would like to find out why something that has been right from
the start and is thus just expected to be there to find out why it's not
there anymore and how to get it working again.

 What I rather wonder than people searching for a way to disable or
blacklist it is wether other distributions do blacklist it by default,
too? And for a start a convenient and easy way to tell alsa-base to
*not* blacklist it. Editing the config file might sound reasonable at
first sight, but thinking along more deeper it would nag one on every
upgrade, especially when the list of other modules in the file changes.
A single file that one could simply "rm" (or, in the first place,
possibly only add through some debconf question?) that would be much
more convenient.

> Between that and my original bug report, if I haven't yet demonstrated
> the existence of a problem, I don't know what will.

 You haven't demonstrated the existence of a problem at all, you
demonstrated that people are diverse and some doesn't like the pc
speaker. If you would like to call something a problem then it might pin
down to having a well documented and convenient way to disable it,
nothing more. Blacklisting the module is just as much of a problem.

> As for why this relates to ALSA: because the sound driver should
> take over (or otherwise manage) the function of the console beep.  I
> suppose it could appear in linux-sound-base instead, since it doesn't
> seem ALSA-specific.

 That's exactly my point, there is nothing alsa specific about the pc
speaker at all, so it's a violation of scope, IMNSHO.

> I sympathize with jidanni's concerns. The console beep not working at
> all seems like a bug.

 .. and it's not only Jidanni's, claiming so seems to try to belittle
the issue at hand to a personal one, which it isn't.


> pcspkr getting loaded at all *also* seems like a bug. (Or, if you
> prefer, pcspkr getting loaded in the absence of a sound card
> represents a bug.)

 I highly like to differ here, it's two different systems and having
them both working seperately isn't something that I would call a bug,
never ever, and I am extremely puzzled why you would want to call that
brokenness. It is *not* broken to have it that way. Never was, never
will.

 So long,
Rhonda