How to Enable System Sounds in Ubuntu

12.10soundsound-theme

Lately I noticed that there aren't any sounds (beeps, boops, plinks, swooshes, etc.) when I press buttons of any sort or if an event happens, such as opening/closing a tab in chromium, pressing a button in the system settings, the login jingle, etc.

How do I enable these sounds?

As a note: I suppose this question is a duplicate of this question, but that question is about 11.10, and the answer there did not solve my issue. I turned up the volume all the way in System Settings -> Sound -> Sound Effects, and my master volume is also turned up all the way.

Also, my sound does work, so that's not the issue.

Best Answer

Enable Sound Effects

In addition to turning ON Alert volume from System Settings... > Hardware > Sound > Sound effects;

1) Install Ubuntu Tweak (For more info: www.webupd8.org/2012/11/ubuntu-tweak-gets-full-ubuntu-1210.html)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

2) Go to Tweaks > Sound

3) Enable Event sounds / Input feedback and select a Sound theme, e.g. Ubuntu studio...

Enable Login Sound

To enable the old login sound, you need to add a new entry to your startup programs:

  1. Open Startup Applications from the dash
  2. Click Add
  3. In the "Command:" line, enter the following command: /usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play --id="desktop-login" --description="play login sound"
  4. The name and comment aren't necessary, but it may be helpful to name it something like "Login Sound" so you can identify it later if necessary.
  5. Click Save

That's it! You should hear the familiar login sound next time you log in.

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