system sounds not working

[doctordruidphd]

I have noticed over the past couple of days that I have lost kde system sounds. If I go to systemsettings > Application and System Notifications > KDE Workspace, all the sounds I have set up are there, and the test button works. But any system sounds, such as thunderbird notifying of arriving mail, or other system messages, play only these stupid ding-type sounds. I'm not sure where they are coming from; my guess is they are coming from the Ubuntu-desktop packages somewhere. Any idea how to get my kde sounds back? Everything in Multimedia > Phonon looks right, too. Using KDM, not Lightdm.

[Snowhog]

See SteveRiley's How To -- Fix silent notification sounds

[doctordruidphd]

Nope, that wasn't / isn't the problem. Did the recommended fixes in the link (both of them), and the offending sound remains.
The problem is that for some reason, default system sounds have been changed from kde to either /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu or /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop. Doesn't matter now, either way, I whacked them both and now the offending sound is gone. But the problem -- that default system sounds are coming from somewhere other than kde, remains unsolved.

[SteveRiley]

Well, let's take a look at what your system thinks it should be doing. Please run

grep Sound /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc

and post the output here.

[doctordruidphd]

Yeah, they are all pointing to the right place -- /usr/share/sounds -- either KDE-something or what I have assigned.
Nothing is pointing where it shouldn't - /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/ or /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/

grep Sound /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc | grep freedesktop
grep Sound /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc | grep ubuntu

produce nothing (as I expected). That's not the problem. The problem is that something other than KDE is taking control of global system sounds; I expect either unity or gnome (both are installed, neither is being used, but may be in the future, so they stay). Now I would think that KDM would take charge of system notifications, but it looks like it isn't, for some reason. What this says to me is that somewhere something is running that shouldn't be. Or maybe KDE and gnome/unity don't cohabit as well as they should.

[SteveRiley]

Or maybe KDE and gnome/unity don't cohabit as well as they should.

I wonder whether anyone's actually tasked with checking on this and working out any kinks? Frightening as the thought may be, I suspect not.

[bra|10n]

@doctordruidphd

If you've installed Thunderbird or any other 'tuned' gtk-apps from the Ubuntu repositories, have you tried purging and re-installing vanilla versions from repositories elsewhere, or as a temporary check from a .deb file?

[doctordruidphd]

@doctordruidphd

If you've installed Thunderbird or any other 'tuned' gtk-apps from the Ubuntu repositories, have you tried purging and re-installing vanilla versions from repositories elsewhere, or as a temporary check from a .deb file?

No, I haven't tried that, and it's probably not worth the hassle now that the irritating noise is gone (by having deleted the sound files). You may be on to something -- it may well be that GTK applications look for gnome's defaults rather than KDE's, just a guess. Though I do recall an error from something other than FF and Thunderbird that gave me a gnome sound. Haven't been able to duplicate that since everything seems to be working right.

[bra|10n]

Well, let's take a look at what your system thinks it should be doing. Please run

grep Sound /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc

and post the output here.

For the first time your one line command has failed in restoring sounds here. I ran the check above and noted a duplication in the path?

A small sample...

kubuntu@Aspire-5750:~$ grep Sound /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc
/usr/share/kde4/apps/k3b/k3b.notifyrc:Sound=file:///usr/share/sounds/file:///usr/share/sounds/file:///usr/share/sounds/KDE-K3B-Finish-Success.ogg
/usr/share/kde4/apps/k3b/k3b.notifyrc:Action=Sound
/usr/share/kde4/apps/k3b/k3b.notifyrc:Sound=file:///usr/share/sounds/file:///usr/share/sounds/file:///usr/share/sounds/KDE-K3B-Finish-Error.ogg
/usr/share/kde4/apps/k3b/k3b.notifyrc:Action=Sound
/usr/share/kde4/apps/k3b/k3b.notifyrc:Sound=file:///usr/share/sounds/file:///usr/share/sounds/file:///usr/share/sounds/KDE-K3B-Insert-Medium.ogg

[SteveRiley]

Yup, there was a similar report on the Kubuntu-users mail list. Looks like some, but not all, .notifyrc files might be getting fixed. I posted to the list a set of steps to repair the symptom you're seeing. I'll repeat that here.

Run the following command:

for j in /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc; do sudo sed -i 's_Sound=file:///usr/share/sounds/_Sound=_g' $j; done

That will remove the extraneous "file:///" stuff. Check the results with:

grep Sound /usr/share/kde4/apps/*/*.notifyrc

If you still see "file:///" in any of the lines, run the for command again, and check the results with the grep command. Lather/rinse/repeat until there are no more lines with "file:///".

Ultimately what you'll end up with are lines that show "Sound=filename" with no path. Now to get everything fixed with the correct path, run the original script in the other thread.

[bra|10n]

Lather/rinse/repeat until there are no more lines with "file:///".

LOL, I did have to run it 3 times to clear all file:/// instances.
Many thanks S.R