From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 26 22:38:22 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 86B111065695 for ; Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:38:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 42A648FC13 for ; Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:38:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-26-31.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.26.31]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id A17C31E444; Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:38:20 +0100 (CET) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id nBQMcIYL002545; Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:38:19 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:38:18 +0100 From: Polytropon To: Gary Kline Message-Id: <20091226233818.078fad13.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20091226214233.GB47231@thought.org> References: <20091225204746.GA60638@thought.org> <20091225220131.96fa1f9d.freebsd@edvax.de> <20091225213713.GA66009@thought.org> <20091225225343.a97f8b43.freebsd@edvax.de> <20091225235048.GB66009@thought.org> <4B356295.7090802@onetel.com> <20091226042322.GA87670@thought.org> <4B35D90E.4070501@infracaninophile.co.uk> <20091226214233.GB47231@thought.org> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: clicky driver X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:38:22 -0000 On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:42:33 -0800, Gary Kline wrote: > Oh, yeah. In the late 80's when I joined my Nth startup and worked > with several fellow hackers in a large room, my Sun was the only > one with the click turned on. It drove my fellow programmers nuts, > but that wasn't much I could do. If there were a speaker jack on > the 3/80 computers, I would have been willing to wear earphones... On early 386 PCs where there was a real "powerful" speaker inside the box, I created a headphone out by removing the speaker and replacing it by a 3.5mm jack, so I could attach earphones. A program I wrote could output waveform data through the PC speaker (in absence of a real sound card), so this was a kind of "do it yourself soundcard". Imagine the fun of connecting a PA. :-) > This older computer was high end in 2003 > but I don't remember seeing a real speaker, so if it's some IC > that's producing the 'beep', I'm outta luck. In "modern" PCs, the speaker is often replaced by a kind of micro-speaker, a black cylindrical object with 0.5mm radius and a small hole in its top. It's a kind of piezo-speaker, sufficient for a friendly little "Beep!" at boot time. The development of recent PCs, as well as of notebooks and netbooks, makes me think that there won't be a speaker (a physical one) in the future anymore. On some systems, e. g. a Siemens-Fujitsu notebook I own, the speaker's functionality is given by the "sound card" and through its speakers, but the control for the speaker is still the "traditional" way. Maybe this way - simply sending 0x07 / BEL, or something like /dev/speaker implements - won't be possible in the future... This will force the output of any sounds through the "sound card" (or its representation by the chip"set" respectively), requiring a specific driver to access the particular hardware. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...