disabling beep sound when backspacing in console

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: disabling beep sound when backspacing in console
started by: someuser77

Posted by someuser77 on Oct. 14 2006,10:34

Hello,
I am using Damn Small Linux 3.01 from the LiveCD and when I delete something I typed in the console (runlevel 2) I get an annoying beeping sound.
It happens when I backspace right to the '~]' symbol.
Lets say I'll remaster DSL, what must i change to disable this beeping sound? I dont want to disable beeping in geneal, only this instance.

Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 14 2006,13:00

Code Sample

xset b off

In X this command can be done at any time and it should affect all X terminals.
To have it done automatically, put the command in /home/dsl/.xinitrc, before the "case $DESKTOP" part. In a remaster, put the command in /etc/skel/.xinitrc

Posted by someuser77 on Oct. 14 2006,13:18

Thanks for the reply mikshaw!
xterm and xinitrc are X related configs.
If I boot into init=2, without X I still get a beep when I backspace.
I would like that "echo -en "\007"" will beep but pressing backspace when the command line is empty except "~]" it will not generate a beep sound.
edit: I can run "echo -e "\33[11;0]"" in the bash shell but this stops all the beeping sounds, also when I "echo -en "\007"".

Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 14 2006,13:39

You can automatically disable the bell in console from /opt/bootlocal.sh:

Code Sample

for TTY in /dev/tty[1-4]; do
setterm -term linux -blength 0 > $TTY
done

This particular script works for tty1-tty4. Adjust as desired.

I don't know which bells you want to keep. Personally I dislike beeps of any kind, so haven't looked any further into it than turning it off completely.

You might try using visual bell instead, which will flash the screen instead of beep.

Posted by someuser77 on Oct. 14 2006,19:50

thanks for your reply mikshaw!
I disabled the sounds in bash by adding "set bell-style none" to /etc/inputrc as you suggested.