no beep any more

[Matthias Apitz]

El día Thursday, July 28, 2016 a las 09:08:10PM +1000, Ian Smith escribió:

> In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 634, Issue 3, Message: 21
> On Wed, 27 Jul 2016 06:13:35 +0200 Matthias Apitz <guru at unixarea.de> wrote:
>  > El d?a Tuesday, July 26, 2016 a las 04:02:25PM -0600, Warren Block escribi?:
>  > 
>  > > I think it's more likely that the Chromebook has been cost-reduced to 
>  > > not have a hardware beeper.
>  > 
>  > I have two of these Acer C720 Chromebooks. One is still beeping and the
>  > other only in the coreboot splash screen, and was beeping in FreeBSD
>  > before. I do not see anything which supports your idea.
> 
> I've been following this thread with interest.

Hi Ian,

This is nice that you say this, really! The problem started some days
ago on the C720 I'm using 7*24 and where I'm typing right now. It could
really be the fact that this C720 has a hardware or BIOS issue. But the
other C720 my son is using, running the same FreeBSD r292778 is beeping
fine but is not beeping when I boot a new USB stick with r303343.
That's why I wanted first concentrate on this C720 to learn what the nature
of the issue or configuration is on this and I wrote in the mail from
where you have copied the part b) as well:

...
a) concentrate first on the C720 which still beeps (to eliminate the                                
   risk that the other has a hardware issue)   
> 
> >From a later message from the list archive (not here yet) you say:
> 
>  > b) let away X11, and use as test cases only:
>  >    1. it should beep on key backspace while cursor is on prompt
>  >    2. it should beep on a second ESC in editor vi 
>  >    3. it should beep on the shell command: printf "\7"
> 
> I don't use vi, but 1 and 3 work here fine both from a VT and within 
> KDE, however I have KDE send 'beep' notifications rather than speaker.
> 
> You seem to assume that something's broken in FreeBSD - which may be the 
> case - but it's also possible that the speaker hardware on the non- 
> beeping one is just broken, especially as device speaker didn't work.

Yes, from the fact "r292778 beeps, while r303343 does not on the same
hardware and the same BIOS" I think that either there is some config
problem or "a moving target", i.e. some random bug;

> Usually the hardware for these in laptops is a simple piezo speaker, 
> commonly with red and blue wires, likely driven by a single TTL or CMOS 
> buffer.  While piezo speakers are pretty hard (but not impossible) to 
> destroy, I've had a laptop where one wire has become detached, so if 
> it's not too hard to get in there to check, that may be worthwhile .. if 
> so it's likely a simple fix, either by soldering or replacement.
> 
> Another possibility is that it's (become?) disabled in BIOS settings?

If it comes to the so called BIOS settings, these Chromebooks has no
settings menu. The hardware boots some 'coreboot' software which has as
a payload a SeaBIOS and the only option you have is select the boot
device if there are more than one.

So, back to the above question: why the beast is beeping with r292778
and not with r303343? Maybe the answer to this will later explain why
the other C720 is not beeping at all at the moment, not with r292778 and
not with r303343...

In any case I will open my C720 and look for the red/blue wires, if they
are not below the motherboard :-(

Thanks for following me in any case!

	matthias

-- 
Matthias Apitz, ✉ guru at unixarea.de, ⌂ http://www.unixarea.de/  ☎ +49-176-38902045
"Wer übersieht, dass wir uns den anderen weggenommen haben und sie uns wiederhaben wollen,
kann von den Kämpfen der letzten Tage keinen verstehen. Und kann natürlich auch keinen
dieser Kämpfe bestehen." Hermann Kant in jW 1.10.1989