| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="pcspeaker_passthrough">
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| 4 | <title>PC Speaker Passthrough</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | As an experimental feature, primarily due to being limited to
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| 9 | Linux host only and unknown Linux distribution coverage,
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| 10 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> supports passing through the PC speaker to the
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| 11 | host. The PC speaker, sometimes called the system speaker, is a
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| 12 | way to produce audible feedback such as beeps without the need for
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| 13 | regular audio and sound card support.
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| 14 | </p>
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| 15 | <p>
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| 16 | The PC speaker passthrough feature in <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> handles beeps
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| 17 | only. Advanced PC speaker use by the VM, such as PCM audio, will
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| 18 | not work, resulting in undefined host behavior.
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| 19 | </p>
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| 20 | <p>
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| 21 | Producing beeps on Linux is a very complex topic. <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 22 | offers a collection of options, in an attempt to make this work
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| 23 | deterministically and reliably on as many Linux distributions and
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| 24 | system configurations as possible. These are summarized in the
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| 25 | following table.
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| 26 | </p>
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| 27 | <table id="table-pcspeaker-config">
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| 28 | <title>PC Speaker Configuration Options</title>
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| 29 | <desc>PC Speaker Configuration Options</desc>
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| 30 | <tgroup cols="3">
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| 31 | <thead>
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| 32 | <row>
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| 33 | <entry>
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| 34 | <p>
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| 35 | <b outputclass="bold">Code</b>
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| 36 | </p>
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| 37 | </entry>
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| 38 | <entry>
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| 39 | <p>
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| 40 | <b outputclass="bold">Device</b>
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| 41 | </p>
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| 42 | </entry>
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| 43 | <entry>
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| 44 | <p>
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| 45 | <b outputclass="bold">Notes</b>
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| 46 | </p>
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| 47 | </entry>
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| 48 | </row>
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| 49 | </thead>
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| 50 | <tbody>
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| 51 | <row>
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| 52 | <entry>
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| 53 | <p>
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| 54 | 1
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| 55 | </p>
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| 56 | </entry>
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| 57 | <entry>
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| 58 | <p>
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| 59 | <filepath>/dev/input/by-path/platform-pcspkr-event-spkr</filepath>
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| 60 | </p>
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| 61 | </entry>
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| 62 | <entry>
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| 63 | <p>
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| 64 | Direct host PC speaker use.
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| 65 | </p>
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| 66 | </entry>
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| 67 | </row>
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| 68 | <row>
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| 69 | <entry>
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| 70 | <p>
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| 71 | 2
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| 72 | </p>
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| 73 | </entry>
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| 74 | <entry>
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| 75 | <filepath>/dev/tty</filepath>
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| 76 | </entry>
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| 77 | <entry>
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| 78 | <p>
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| 79 | Uses the terminal association of the VM process. VM
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| 80 | needs to be started on a virtual console.
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| 81 | </p>
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| 82 | </entry>
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| 83 | </row>
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| 84 | <row>
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| 85 | <entry>
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| 86 | <p>
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| 87 | 3
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| 88 | </p>
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| 89 | </entry>
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| 90 | <entry>
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| 91 | <p><filepath>/dev/tty0</filepath> or
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| 92 | <filepath>/dev/vc/0</filepath>
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| 93 | </p>
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| 94 | </entry>
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| 95 | <entry>
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| 96 | <p>
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| 97 | Can only be used by user <codeph>root</codeph> or
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| 98 | users with <codeph>cap_sys_tty_config</codeph>
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| 99 | capability.
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| 100 | </p>
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| 101 | </entry>
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| 102 | </row>
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| 103 | <row>
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| 104 | <entry>
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| 105 | <p>
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| 106 | 9
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| 107 | </p>
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| 108 | </entry>
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| 109 | <entry>
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| 110 | <p>
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| 111 | A user-specified console or evdev device path.
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| 112 | </p>
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| 113 | </entry>
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| 114 | <entry>
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| 115 | <p>
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| 116 | As for codes 1 to 3, but with a custom device path.
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| 117 | </p>
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| 118 | </entry>
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| 119 | </row>
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| 120 | <row>
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| 121 | <entry>
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| 122 | <p>
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| 123 | 70
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| 124 | </p>
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| 125 | </entry>
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| 126 | <entry>
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| 127 | <p>
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| 128 | <filepath>/dev/tty</filepath>
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| 129 | </p>
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| 130 | </entry>
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| 131 | <entry>
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| 132 | <p>
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| 133 | Standard beep only. Loses frequency and length. See code
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| 134 | 2.
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| 135 | </p>
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| 136 | </entry>
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| 137 | </row>
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| 138 | <row>
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| 139 | <entry>
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| 140 | <p>
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| 141 | 79
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| 142 | </p>
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| 143 | </entry>
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| 144 | <entry>
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| 145 | <p>
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| 146 | A user-specified terminal device path.
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| 147 | </p>
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| 148 | </entry>
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| 149 | <entry>
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| 150 | <p>
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| 151 | As for code 70, but with a custom device path.
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| 152 | </p>
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| 153 | </entry>
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| 154 | </row>
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| 155 | <row>
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| 156 | <entry>
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| 157 | <p>
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| 158 | 100
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| 159 | </p>
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| 160 | </entry>
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| 161 | <entry>
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| 162 | <p>
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| 163 | All of the above.
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| 164 | </p>
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| 165 | </entry>
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| 166 | <entry>
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| 167 | <p>
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| 168 | Tries all the available codes.
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| 169 | </p>
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| 170 | </entry>
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| 171 | </row>
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| 172 | </tbody>
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| 173 | </tgroup>
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| 174 | </table>
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| 175 | <p>
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| 176 | To enable PC speaker passthrough use the following command:
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| 177 | </p>
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| 178 | <pre xml:space="preserve">VBoxManage setextradata <varname>VM-name</varname> "VBoxInternal/Devices/i8254/0/Config/PassthroughSpeaker" <varname>N</varname>
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| 179 | </pre>
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| 180 | <p>
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| 181 | Replace <varname>N</varname> with the code representing
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| 182 | the case you want to use. Changing this setting takes effect when
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| 183 | you next start the VM. It is safe to enable PC speaker passthrough
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| 184 | on all host OSes. It will only have an effect on Linux.
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| 185 | </p>
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| 186 | <p>
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| 187 | The VM log file, <filepath>VBox.log</filepath>, contains lines
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| 188 | with the prefix <codeph>PIT: speaker:</codeph> showing the PC
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| 189 | speaker passthrough setup activities. It gives hints which device
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| 190 | it picked or why it failed.
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| 191 | </p>
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| 192 | <p>
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| 193 | Enabling PC speaker passthrough for the VM is usually the simple
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| 194 | part. The real difficulty is making sure that <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can
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| 195 | access the necessary device, because in a typical Linux install
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| 196 | most of them can only be accessed by user <codeph>root</codeph>.
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| 197 | You should follow the preferred way to persistently change this,
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| 198 | such as by referring to your distribution's documentation. Since
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| 199 | there are countless Linux distribution variants, we can only give
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| 200 | the general hints that there is often a way to give the X11
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| 201 | session user access to additional devices, or you need to find a
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| 202 | working solution using a udev configuration file. If everything
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| 203 | fails you might try setting the permissions using a script which
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| 204 | is run late enough in the host system startup.
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| 205 | </p>
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| 206 | <p>
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| 207 | Sometimes additional rules are applied by the kernel to limit
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| 208 | access. For example, that the VM process must have the same
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| 209 | controlling terminal as the device configured to be used for
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| 210 | beeping, something which is often very difficult to achieve for
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| 211 | GUI applications such as <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>. The table above contains
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| 212 | some hints, but in general refer to the Linux documentation.
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| 213 | </p>
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| 214 | <p>
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| 215 | If you have trouble getting any beeps even if the device
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| 216 | permissions are set up and VBox.log confirms that it uses evdev or
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| 217 | console for the PC speaker control, check if your system has a PC
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| 218 | speaker. Some systems do not have one. Other complications can
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| 219 | arise from Linux rerouting the PC speaker output to a sound card.
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| 220 | Check if the beeps are audible if you connect speakers to your
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| 221 | sound card. Today almost all systems have one. Finally, check if
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| 222 | the audio mixer control has a channel named "beep", which could be
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| 223 | hidden in the mixer settings, and that it is not muted.
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| 224 | </p>
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| 225 | </body>
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| 226 |
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| 227 | </topic>
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