Play a sound in the background with a command? (Solved)

[Brighid]

Hi everyone,

My first post on the Kubuntu forums, but I'm somewhat active on the Ubuntu forums. I thought it was better to ask about this here.

I recently installed CheckGmail (using Automatix), which is a nice little program that keeps me aware of the status of my inbox. One thing I don't like, though, is that no sound is played when I receive new mail. However, I can execute a command when I get new mail, so I thought perhaps I could have a program run a sound in the background (that is, without any windows actually opening).

I just don't know what program is best. I thought I'd try using Knotify, which I guess does all system sounds, but typing "knotify" in the console gives me "command not found". So I'm assuming that won't work.

I don't want to use AmaroK or Kaffeine, because they are always busy running other things for me. Besides, that's a lot of nonsense just to run one sound every so often.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I know I could get by without any sound, but it's just something I prefer.

I'll keep looking for options on my own, but no harm in reaching out for help, I hope!

Thanks in advance to any who reply.

Edit: Teppic solved this one for me, thanks!

Back to original question...

Something like aplay for wav files

aplay /usr/kde/3.5/share/sounds/KDE_Beep_ClockChime.wav

or mpg321/mpg123 or ogg123 for mp3

ogg123 /usr/kde/3.5/share/sounds/KDE_Event_2.ogg 2&>/dev/null

mpg321 /usr/kde/3.4/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-sink.mp3 2&>/dev/null

mpg321, mpg123, ogg123 should be seperate packages, aplay is part of the alsa-utils package.

[devnulljp]

Re: Play a sound in the background with a command?

Did you try K->System settings->Sound&Multimedia->System Notifications?
Look in event source for KCheckGmail and turn on sounds there.

[Brighid]

Re: Play a sound in the background with a command?

Did you try K->System settings->Sound&Multimedia->System Notifications?
Look in event source for KCheckGmail and turn on sounds there.

I hadn't thought of that, but when I checked there, the only mail program I saw was "KMail". Checkgmail wasn't there at all.

[devnulljp]

Re: Play a sound in the background with a command?

Try,

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install kcheckgmail

then...

K->System settings->Sound&Multimedia->System Notifications
Look in event source for KCheckGmail and turn on sounds there.


You might need uni/multiverse enabled in apt...

[Brighid]

Re: Play a sound in the background with a command?

Try,

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install kcheckgmail

then...

K->System settings->Sound&Multimedia->System Notifications
Look in event source for KCheckGmail and turn on sounds there.


You might need uni/multiverse enabled in apt...

Well, I see what you mean now. I had been using CheckGmail, not KCheckGmail, and I'd assumed they were the same, but they are clearly quite different. I installed KCheckGmail, and now I'm having troubles getting it to work .. I can indeed change notifications now, but it won't log in, telling me it gets an "unknown error retrieving cookies". I thought that I'd maybe have to log in to Gmail with Konqueror (I use Firefox primarily) but I did, and nothing changed.

I don't really know what to do now, but thank you for pointing out this program ..

[Teppic]

Re: Play a sound in the background with a command?

Back to original question...

Something like aplay for wav files

aplay /usr/kde/3.5/share/sounds/KDE_Beep_ClockChime.wav

or mpg321/mpg123 or ogg123 for mp3

ogg123 /usr/kde/3.5/share/sounds/KDE_Event_2.ogg 2&>/dev/null

mpg321 /usr/kde/3.4/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-sink.mp3 2&>/dev/null

mpg321, mpg123, ogg123 should be seperate packages, aplay is part of the alsa-utils package.

[Brighid]

Re: Play a sound in the background with a command?

Back to original question...

Something like aplay for wav files

aplay /usr/kde/3.5/share/sounds/KDE_Beep_ClockChime.wav

or mpg321/mpg123 or ogg123 for mp3

ogg123 /usr/kde/3.5/share/sounds/KDE_Event_2.ogg 2&>/dev/null

mpg321 /usr/kde/3.4/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-sink.mp3 2&>/dev/null

mpg321, mpg123, ogg123 should be seperate packages, aplay is part of the alsa-utils package.

Wow! That's perfect! I didn't even know that was on the system. Devnulljp, thank you for suggesting KCheckGmail. I did eventually get it working, but I found it doesn't have some of the features I so enjoy in CheckGmail.

Teppic, thank you very much for the information on those commands, I know I'll be using them for countless things!