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I would have expected System ▸ Administration ▸ Login Screen ▸ Play login sound to control this, but unchecking it does not prevent the drum beat sound from playing.

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15 Answers 15

64

For Ubuntu 12.04+

LightDM Way (works in Ubuntu Unity 22.10)

Also known as the FluteFlute Slap, the LightDM Way involves having to logout and on the LightDM Login Screen you can change the volume or even mute the sound.

In the Login Greeter you can see the Volume on the top right. Adjusting the volume there does not affect the volume when the session starts, so you can MUTE the sound in the Greeter without muting the sound when your session starts:

enter image description here

Ubuntu Tweak Way (not available in Ubuntu Unity 22.10)

The Ubuntu Tweak way involves having to download the Ubuntu Tweak app and then disabling the sound from there. Do the following steps and you can do it this way:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Open Ubuntu Tweak and on the Tweak Tab select "Login Settings" option, you should see the Play Login Sound option. Yo need to click on the Lock button above to be able to change this.

enter image description here

For Ubuntu 11.10 and Below

Go to System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications

Startup Applications

Disable the one called GNOME Login Sound

(uncheck the box and click close)

Disable the sound

you can also go to System -> Preferences -> Sound and disable the whole sound system (Like windows sounds, alerts, etc..)

In older version you could go to the Sound Preference part and select each sound and what you wanted to do. It was removed around 9.04 or 9.10. It would be good if it came back.

3
  • 2
    @AliNa - Then you have found a bug my friend. Kill it with a launchpad bug spray. You will have saved many lives in the process. Nov 26, 2012 at 13:12
  • 1
    You cannot use the MUTE button to mute the sound (it is not remembered) But you can set the volume to 0 which is remembered fine and which doesn't affect the volume after login.
    – rubo77
    Jul 5, 2017 at 15:14
  • 2
    The "LightDM Way" muted all sound in my (i3) session. The setting was not visible in pavucontrol and had to be reverted in the greeter. Changing the corresponding setting of LightDM was effective.
    – Raphael
    Nov 9, 2017 at 12:42
61

The start-up sound can be disabled editing the Unity Greeter configuration. Running the following from a terminal will do this:

echo -e '[com.canonical.unity-greeter]\nplay-ready-sound = false' \
    | sudo tee -a /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/50_unity-greeter.gschema.override
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

If you are running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS make sure you have updates installed as this feature was added in an update.

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  • 13
    There is an option in gsettings for this, com.canonical.unity-greeter play-ready-soundbut currently isn't working. One simple thing that does work is when on the greeter screen just turn the volume off in the sound indicator. The setting is persistent
    – doug
    Apr 21, 2012 at 3:26
  • @doug, thanks. The second and third sentence of your comment don't pertain this answer. I think they should go as separate answer to my question to be more visible. Apr 21, 2012 at 21:53
  • 2
    I think the answer for changing the sound permanently is currently in moving or removing this file: /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg. See from this thread --> ubuntuforums.org/…
    – emf
    Jun 19, 2013 at 18:28
  • 3
    @e.m.fields There's no need to resort to such a destructive hack when we have a built-in setting in support of this. Changing that setting is the cleanest solution.
    – ændrük
    Jun 19, 2013 at 20:30
  • 2
    aendruk, I'm in favor of nondestructive solutions when they're available, but up to this point seems to have been none. What is this file? Is this a patch to an existing system application?
    – emf
    Aug 29, 2013 at 7:38
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+50

12.04 - 16.10 (LightDM)

Here is what worked for me after I installed 12.04 last week.

The steps are these, adapted from http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/05/disable-the-ready-drum-sound-in-ubuntu-12-04-precise-pangolin/:

sudo nano /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/50_unity-greeter.gschema.override

Add these lines:

[com.canonical.unity-greeter]
play-ready-sound = false

Save, then run:

sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

Reboot and enjoy.

Edit: gksu and gksudo were removed in 18.04 but the linked article describes how to edit system files without them. I have updated the first terminal command to demonstrate how one might edit the file from the command line. Replace nano with the editor of your choice.

3
  • Works on 16.10 as well.
    – orschiro
    Oct 30, 2016 at 15:25
  • Works on 17.04 too
    – Katu
    Jun 17, 2017 at 9:38
  • Just confirm this works on 18.04 running Unity (for those who are odd, like me :) ). Quick notice though for those who aren't too familiar - you're creating a new file when you open "50_unity-greeter.gschema.override". I was confused when I couldn't find that file until I realised the instruction was to create a new file. (might be worth mentioning that in the original post?)
    – JamesBB
    Jun 4, 2018 at 14:39
21

11.10 (LightDM and GDM)

Quick solution:

Open a terminal and run the command

sudo mv /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/desktop-login{,-disabled}.ogg  

The lightdm drum sound for system ready can be disabled in a similar fashion

sudo mv /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready{,-disabled}.ogg  
0
11

For 12.04

By default, it is turned off. To enable it, open a terminal and run

gksudo gedit /usr/share/gnome/autostart/libcanberra-login-sound.desktop

Then change the value for X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled to "true", i.e. X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

For 11.10

Type on a terminal gksudo gedit /usr/share/gnome/autostart/libcanberra-login-sound.desktop and change the value NoDisplay from true to false:

enter image description here

Now go to your startup applications and you should see and be able to disable the necessary option:

enter image description here

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10

10.10 (GDM)

There appears to be a bug in the Login Screen about this. I can't find an official report, however, this forum post confirms a fix.

Go to System/Administration/Login Screen. Unlock it, then tick "Play login sound".

Close the window, then, go back into the app again, unlock it, then untick the same option.

enter image description here

0
7

If you are using GDM with 12.04

To disable the login sounds, the event-sounds key under org.gnome.desktop.sound for the gdm user must be set to false.

For this, we must first give GDM ownership of its own home directory. Open a terminal, and type: sudo chown -R gdm:gdm /var/lib/gdm

Then run:

sudo xhost +SI:localuser:gdm
sudo -u gdm gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.sound event-sounds false

and logout (or reboot).

If you are using LightDM with 12.04

Open a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T, and type/paste the following, one line at a time:

sudo xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm
sudo su lightdm -s /bin/bash
gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter play-ready-sound false
exit

What this does is disable the play-ready-sound setting for the login screen/desktop manager user (lightdm).

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  • Did not work for me on 12.04 with gdm. gdm settings shows 2 warnings. After reboot the sound is still being played.
    – geekQ
    Sep 14, 2012 at 8:32
  • Care to pastebin the warnings?
    – ish
    Sep 14, 2012 at 8:46
  • Warnings: pastebin.com/KTifY1Qi
    – geekQ
    Sep 14, 2012 at 18:22
  • The line gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter play-ready-sound false raised an error on 15.04, the error is (process:2257): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Error spawning command line 'dbus-launch --autolaunch=4cc96c42d68a423d93de2cbdd23b5a89 --binary-syntax --close-stderr': Child process exited with code 1
    – texasflood
    Jun 15, 2015 at 10:41
  • dconf-editor can be used to set com.canonical.unity-greeter.play-ready-sound.
    – Raphael
    Nov 9, 2017 at 12:11
5

11.10 (LightDM and GDM)

For removing the startup sound :

mv /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg.old 

For enabling the startup sound

mv /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg.old /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg

For removing the Login Sound (After you login) :

mv /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/desktop-login.ogg /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/desktop-login.ogg.old

For enabling it again :

mv /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/desktop-login.ogg.old /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/desktop-login.ogg
1
  • Note: on 12.04 with GDM moving the system-ready.ogg just changes the startup sound from original to a short beat.
    – geekQ
    Sep 14, 2012 at 8:26
3

11.10 (LightDM and GDM)

This should work for you.

gksudo gedit /usr/share/gnome/autostart/libcanberra-login-sound.desktop

Then change the NoDisplay= to false, ect.

or to remove it:

sudo rm /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg
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11.10 (GDM)

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.sound event-sounds false
1

12.10 (GDM)

None of the above works for me with gdm. If I disable the system-ready sound (the bongos), it still makes a short drum sound (one beat).

The way to disable it is:

  • Boot up, get into gdm.

  • Switch to the console (Ctrl + Alt + F1)

  • Login

  • Enter:

      export DISPLAY=:0
      sudo -H -u gdm pavucontrol
    
  • Switch back to gdm (Ctrl + Alt + F8)

  • Disable sound in the mixer. I muted it in "Playback" and "Output Devices".

  • Close the mixer, you might get an error about writing the config file, this is harmless.

  • Switch back to the console and enter

      sudo service gdm restart
    

    to test, and exit to logout.

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11.04 and earlier (GDM)

Run this command in a terminal?

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false

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+50

12.10 (LightDM)

Run the same command Jorge Castro gave, only with gdm replaced for lightdm:

sudo -u lightdm gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false
1

The easiest way is just to mute sound in the greeting. Just click volume and click "mute".

This will mute sound only in the greeter.

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12.04 (LightDM)

The LightDM bongo sound cannot be disabled via any GUI option in 12.04 and there is a bug report here:

The command line methods above can disable it.

The sound after login can easily be disabled with the answers above.

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