Re: Playing a sound when GDM is "ready"

[José Alburquerque <jaalburquerque cox net>]

Glenn J. Mason wrote:
> > A simple explanation as to what gdm does to play a sound would help
> > greatly!  Thanks very much
> >     
>
> My understanding is that it uses a script:
>
> /usr/lib/gdmplay
>
> This in turn calls aplay, the ALSA player.
>
> Maybe have a play with aplay and read the manpage for it?  Perhaps, as someone
> suggested, the ALSA mixer levels aren't reset until after you login?  Or aplay
> doesn't know which device to use?
>
> HTH
> --
> Glenn J. Mason (glennji)
>
>
>
>   
Thanks!  This actually helps a lot.  Although I cannot find
/usr/lib/gdmplay, it prompted me to look at what files are associated
with the gdm package on my system.  I found some commented lines in
/usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf that read:

# GDM Configuration file.
#
...
# If SoundOnLogin is true, then the greeter will beep when login is
ready for
# user input.  If SoundOnLogin is a file and the greeter finds the 'play'
# executable (see daemon/SoundProgram) it will play that file instead of
just
# beeping.
#SoundOnLogin=true

It seems that the greeter looks for the 'play' command (from sox) which
I had not installed yet.  When I installed sox (actually to try to play
the sound files as the first replier suggested), sound from gdm began to
work just fine.  Thanks to both replies, they were very helpful.

--
Sincerely
Jose Alburquerque