[NCLUG] Beep, Beep, Beep - How do I make it beep properly?

[John Gilmore]

I want my camera to beep in a particular pattern when I plug it in, and again 
(in a different pattern) when it's done downloading images, and its safe to 
unplug it. So I downloaded a console 'beep' program, and it works just fine, 
except:

I've just installed debian testing "ech" and it's exibiting a rather odd 
behavior. Before I log into KDE, a beep is a beep, and a text root console 
"echo -e '\a'" will beep the PC speaker. 

After I log in to KDE, ALL beeps go to the sound card, even ones from 
pre-existing text consoles.

Looking for thing that can redirect the console beeps to the sound card, I 
found two projects:

From the linux sound HOWTO: 
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/patches/misc/modreq_beep.tgz

This one requires a kernel module, and a device file. I've also seen a similar 
implementation that used a file in /proc to do basically the same thing.

"softbeep" if a standard debian package - which isn't installed on my system 
according to dpkg -s. Seemingly, this is the 'softbeep' program, which uses 
LD_PRELOAD to intercept terminal bells, calls to ncurses 'beep()' and calls 
to GTK 'gdk_beep()' 

Not only is it not installed, but you shouldn't be able to redirect beeps from 
a root text console using this method, should you?

Konsole doesn't even have a 'just beep, damit!' option. It allows running a 
program, though. So I set this to my 'beep' program, and it works fine - 
except that it's output is still redirected to the sound card. This program 
works via ioctl() on the /dev/console device, and before starting KDE, it 
works GREAT! And after starting KDE, I get these LAME soft beeps that are 
barely audible *IF* I have my headphones jacked in, AND that interrupt any 
other sounds (like the movie I was watching) AAARRRGGHH!!!!

The KDE control center doesn't say anything about this, and also doesn't have 
a 'just beep, damnit!' option. It's got a section on the system bell, but it 
doesn't work either. And it says nothing about redirecting my PC speaker 
beeps.

So I'm completely lost on this. Does anybody else have a better idea? What 
else could it be? I've tried everything I can think of, but "beep" is a 
really common word to be googling for, and the above two results are spamming 
my searches.

I thought about waiting till the next meeting, but this is really frustrating, 
and if I take some action on it now, I know I'll be able to ignore it easier.

But it's still irritating.