Pcmcia Beep - Can It Be Suppressed?

[Dadzarmy]

Hi,
I've just upgraded to 3.8 on an old Compaq Armada 7800, using 2 PCMCIA NICs.
It works beautifully, but on every boot I get 4 very loud beeps that don't seem to serve any purpose as there are no error conditions. The situation of my router is such that it only runs a few hours per day and right in a work space.

A problem with old Armada laptops is that there is no access to the BIOS.

Is there a way to modify the pkg files to stop the beepin?

Thanks

[Lightning]

I am not really certain where the beeps are coming from. But to start with go into the advanced setup and turn off the diagnostic beeps and see if that helps.

[Dadzarmy]

Yes, thanks, I should have said that I already have all the diagnostic sounds turned off. That's why I think it is somewhere in the scripts that find the cards and load the modules. PCMCIA loads 4 modules (with 2 NICS), so I'm guessing 1 beep per module. Unless some script line is doing all the tooting on its own.

I've checked the RC scripts as far as I could work it out, so maybe something buried in the original PCMCIA module code? It's beyond me to work that out, I'm afraid.

[Maine-iac]

I have used Freesco on a laptop with PCMCIA cards for years. The beeps are diagnostic beeps from the PCMCIA package itself. Their purpose is to indicate that the cards were successfully installed and ready. If the cards don't install properly, you would get a different series of beeps. I would be more concerned if I did not get the beeps.

[Dadzarmy]

Thanks Maine-iac for confirming the beep source.

My question remains - can I turn it off? No other module that I know of overrides Freesco's nice setup option to turn off diagnostic sounds. If, like me, you do frequent bootups in an environment that needs to be quiet, and you are quite happy to check messages if something doesn't work, and you have no way to adjust the server's beep volume, then you would enjoy the opportunity to turn it off.

If I had codeing skills (which I don't) I would aim to modify the module sources so that those beeps made the same calls as other programs do to Freesco's audible diagnostic sounds procedures, so then the sounds would then be selectable in Setup.

Is there a DIY option for that?

Is there a brain-iac out there for me?

thanks

[Lightning]

Unfortunately the beeps are coming directly from the pcmcia binaries them selves and unless the source code for those binaries is changed and the time taken to find out in that code where the beeps are located then what you are asking is not possible. However you do still have one option that I used years ago when I needed a quiet machine. Which is just take the cover off of the computer and disconnect the speaker and it will be very quiet from that moment on. Even the bootup BIOS beeps/ticks will go away.

[jebusyoda]

In pcmcia-cs.14-Jun-05.tar.gz source code if you look at cardmgr.8 you can see there is a quiet mode available and in cardmgr.c you will see that it can be compiled with a be_quiet switch:

/* If set, don't generate beeps when cards are inserted */
static int be_quiet = 0;

I believe change 0 to 1 and compile

...JJG

[Lightning]

With that information you have solved this problem. Just edit the rc file and add the "-q" flag to the startup script and it will no longer beep on module loading. Because I really don't plan on recompiling it so that quiet is the default when there is already a quiet flag. Here is how to do it

edit /pkg/rc/rc_pcmcia

Find this code on line 26

Code: Select all

cardmgr $CARDMGR_OPT  2>/dev/null

and changet it to

Code: Select all

cardmgr -q  $CARDMGR_OPT  2>/dev/null

[Dadzarmy]

Thanks to Lightning for the no-holds-barred hardware suggestion and Jebusyoda for the code solution.

I'm not ready to go snipping wires just yet (it must be the red wire... no... the black wire.... no... the yellow wire.... tick tick tick...)

And I'm not up to source compilation either.

So I guess I'll just sit tight with my fingers in my ears and hope that somebody, someday, has the time, skill, and inclination to recode, recompile and re-package the module to be configurable in Freesco setup or to redirect sound output through Freesco :unsure:

Thanks all..

[Lightning]

or to redirect sound output through Freesco

That would also be easy enough to do with the -q flag and the system. It would require about two more lines of code in the rc_pcmcia to get the main configuration option and add it into the system so that when beeps are disabled so is the pcmcia beeps.
So at some point when I have the time and the inclination I will repackage it with that ability. But for those who just want it quite to start with now. It is VERY easy to make my previously suggested modification and just add the "-q" flag manually.

I'm not ready to go snipping wires just yet

Hehe, as for my previous suggestion on disabling the speaker. I suspect you have not looked around the guts and feathers of a computer a LOT. Because the speaker is just a standard small little speaker that has two wires and there is a very easy plug to identify it and just disconnect the speaker from the board without any permanent damage or harm. At least in 99% of computers that is as there are a few that use a large mutli plug that does complicate things a bit. So if the bootup beeps and ticks are also annoying that is still an option that is not as hard as it sounds. Just find the speaker and track where the two small wires go to the board and unplug it.

[Dadzarmy]

Great Lightning, thanks I am brave enough to do the rc script mod.

Your hardware hack set me thinking and I came up with another workaround that doesn't involve even opening the case.

Armada and a lot of laptops don't have a separate pc speaker, it all feeds through the builtin stereo spkrs. Push any old stereo plug into the external speaker socket and you'll hear nothing but silence, because the internal speakers are disconnected, non destructively!

all done and dusted, thanks again.