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After recent updates, desktop notification sounds stopped working. For example, sounds in pidgin no longer work. But when I go to Pidgin sound preferences and preview the sounds, they work. Also the sound in the applications work fine as usual. Could this be a bug or is there some workaround for this problem?

Jorge Castro
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Guruprasad
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  • Is there any application besides Pidgin in which sounds are not working? If it's just Pidgin whose sounds you're not hearing (but you hear them when you preview them), then uncheck `Tools` > `Mute Sounds` in Pidgin. – Eliah Kagan Nov 22 '11 at 18:23
  • It is already unchecked. – Guruprasad Nov 22 '11 at 18:36
  • The problem was that 'Enable sounds' in Tools->Preferences->Sound was set to 'Only when available' and some how my status was set a few days back to away. Changing 'Enable sounds' to always solved the problem. – Guruprasad Nov 22 '11 at 18:41
  • @EliahKagan, Even the Ubuntu login sound I didn't hear. But I now found out that it is an issue with Ubuntu where I have to copy all the sound files from /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo to /usr/share/sounds. – Guruprasad Nov 22 '11 at 18:43

5 Answers5

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For me, the solution was to:

  1. Open dconf-editor.
  2. Navigate to org.gnome.desktop.sound and enable event-sounds.
nocnokneo
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using ubuntu 12.04, i installed ubuntu-tweak and on the Tweaks tab, enter the sound section and then enable Event sounds and choose a Sound theme (default "ubuntu").

mwm
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You need to add the following startup item to the startup applications.

Step 1: Click on the system menu at the top right of the screen (looks like a wheel)
Step 2: Click on startup applications
Step 3: Click add.
Step 4: Complete with the following: 

Name: GNOME Login sound
Command: /usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play --id="desktop-login" --description="GNOME Login"
Comment: Startup Sound

Step 5: Click add.
Step 6: Click close in the bigger box.
Step 7: Log off and log in.

That worked for me.

Eliah Kagan
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Nico Fekete Perez
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The problem with Pidgin was that 'Enable sounds' in Tools->Preferences->Sound was set to 'Only when available' and some how my status was set a few days back to away.

As for the other desktop notification sounds like the login sound - I found out that it is an issue with Ubuntu where I have to copy all the sound files from /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo to /usr/share/sounds. After doing that, the standard Ubuntu login sound played on login.

Jorge Castro
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Guruprasad
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  • If this resolved your problem, could you please mark it as such by clicking the checkmark to the left of your answer? Thanks! – Knowledge Cube Feb 25 '12 at 00:56
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Actually, the standard notification sounds, which are set in system settings => sound will not work in Compiz, it seems. But it's not a sound problem; somehow, the actual event is not being sent. This is the sound used for errors or warnings. It includes the visual alerts that can be enabled in system settings => universal access (which has a button that triggers the sound + visual cue).

I found that it works correctly using Metacity, so I entered a bug report to Compiz.

Marty Fried
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