DTSOUNDS(1)DTSOUNDS(1)NAMEdtSounds - customization panel for controlling desktop & system sounds
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/dtSounds
DESCRIPTION
The dtSounds customization panel lets the user toggle which sounds the
SGI system produces. The panel presents a set of six toggle buttons:
Mute System
Startup & Shutdown Tunes
Desktop Sounds
System Alerts Sounds
Keyboard Bell
Key Click
Play Desktop Sounds Through (different output choices)
Mute System
Checking the Mute System toggle will disable the specified output
interface (if it supports mute). If the user subsequently launches
audiopanel to change the mute state of the system, then later brings up
the dtSounds panel, the dtSounds panel will update itself to show the
actual mute state properly.
Checking this toggle is essentially equivalent to checking the Mute
toggle on audiopanel. If audiopanel is not installed, then this toggle
will appear dimmed on the dtSounds panel. To install the audiopanel
software, install the dmedia_eoe.sw.tools subsystem from the IRIX(R)
distribution CD.
Startup & Shutdown Tunes
Checking the Startup & Shutdown Tunes toggle will make audible the music
riffs that play when the user powers on and powers off the SGI system.
Checking this toggle sets the non-volatile RAM volume (see the nvram(1M)
and sgikopt(2) reference pages for details), which means the panel will
prompt the user to enter the root password before it lets the user toggle
these sounds.
Desktop Sounds
Checking the Desktop Sounds toggle will enable percussive sounds to play
in response to various actions the user performs in the desktop
environment. For example, when the user moves an icon on the background,
a sound like sand shifting will play, and when the user double-clicks an
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icon, a hollow double snap will play. To control the volume of these
sounds, use audiopanel.
Some applications will not recognize changes in the Desktop Sounds
selection until the user logs out and logs in again.
Because specific icon types can be set to not use the visual launch
effect or the launch sound (see ftr), icons of those types will never
exhibit the launch effect or play the launch sound when they are double-
clicked, even when the dtSounds(1) Desktop Sounds toggle or the Show
Launch Effect toggle is checked. For example, none of the device icons
uses the visual launch effect, and none of the sound icons uses the
launch sound.
The Desktop Sounds toggle used to appear on the Desktop customization
panel in IRIX 6.2 and previous releases. If soundscheme is not running,
then this toggle will appear dimmed.
For information about how to change the sound assignments in the preset
collection of desktop sounds, see the Sounds and Color Schemes appendix
in the desktop_eoe release notes.
System Alerts Sounds
Checking the System Alerts Sounds toggle will let the user hear warning
sounds and alarms from the syserrpanel application. For example, when
the system system runs out of disk space, a dialog window appears
onscreen and a cymbal crash plays.
Checking this toggle is essentially equivalent to checking the Sound
Effects toggle on syserrpanel. If the IRIX 6.3 or later version of
syserrpanel is not installed, then this toggle will appear dimmed on the
dtSounds panel. To install the syserrpanel software, install the
sysmon.sw.notifier subsystem from the IRIX distribution CD.
Keyboard Bell
Checking the Keyboard Bell toggle will enable a high-pitched beep to play
as the keyboard bell. For example, when the user presses the Esc key
when the cursor is on the command line in a UNIX shell, the keyboard bell
plays. This executes an xset -b off or xset -b on and sets the keyclick
percent to either 0 or 51, respectively.
Key Click
Checking the Key Click toggle will enable a typewriter-like dull click to
play whenever the user presses a key on the keyboard.
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Checking this toggle is essentially equivalent to checking the Key Click
toggle on the keyboard panel. If the user subsequently launches keyboard
to toggle the keyboard bell, then later brings up the dtSounds panel, the
dtSounds panel will update itself to show the actual keyboard bell state
properly. The reverse is also true for the keyboard panel.
Play Desktop Sounds Through
In IRIX 6.5, users can redirect the desktop sounds from the default audio
output device to an alternate output device available on the system. For
example, the user can redirect sounds to the rear audio jacks on an O2,
while devoting the speaker and headphone device to some other
application.
FILES
$HOME/.Sgiresources
$HOME/.desktop-<hostname>/FmState
$HOME/.desktop-<hostname>/DefaultAudioDevice
A record of the choices the user makes on this panel is stored in the
file $HOME/.Sgiresources where $HOME is the location of the user's home
directory. Users should not change the dtSounds resource settings in
this file by hand.
In IRIX 6.5, the dtSounds panel sends messages to the file manager by
saving settings to the special FmState file in the $HOME/.desktop-
<hostname> directory, where <hostname> is the result of running the
hostname(1) command. The file manager detects when this file changes and
applies the settings in the desktop environment. The FmState file is not
meant to be altered by end users directly.
When the user changes the default output device, the choice is recorded
in the $HOME/.desktop-<hostname>/DefaultAudioDevice file. The
/varX11/xdm/Xsession.dt script reads the contents of this file the next
time the user logs in, to restore the user's preference. This file is
not intended to be altered by end users directly.
NOTES
Like most other customization panels, the dtSounds panel has the
``runonce'' feature, meaning only one instance of the application will
run from the toolchest at one time. Attempting to launch the application
a second time will have the effect of deiconifying the application window
or popping it to the top on the current desk.
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DTSOUNDS(1)DTSOUNDS(1)SEE ALSOIID(1), audiopanel(1), desktop(1), keyboard(1), nvram(1M), sgikopt(2),
soundscheme(1), syserrpanel(1), xset(1), ftr(1)
For more information about the entire IRIX Interactive Desktop
environment and about the XUSERFILESEARCHPATH environment variable, see
the IID(1) man page.
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