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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?

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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. Nov 22, 2011 at 18:23
  • It is already unchecked.
    – Guruprasad
    Nov 22, 2011 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, 2011 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, 2011 at 18:43

5 Answers 5

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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.

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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! Feb 25, 2012 at 0:56
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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.

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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.
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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").

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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.

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