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  • The mistery of the five chirps

I was using a 2015 Macbook Pro before my current laptop and sometimes, just after login, it would sound an alarm of 5 short chirps (each chirp is sort of a double chirp). I initially thought it might be a hardware alarm, maybe a RAM issue, but after running several tests, no hardware issues could be found. So I started wondering if it was something in Gnome. Maybe a rogue app notification or the OS trying to tell me something.

I know have a new laptop and I'm running Solus Budgie, and today there was the five-chirp alarm again.

What the hell is that alarm? I can't find anything on the internet about it. Not even on Youtube.

Anyone got any idea?

I can't record it because it happens completely randomly

Those could be POST or BIOS beep codes. One time I had CMOS battery discharged on a Dell laptop, so POST was issuing 5 beeps on each boot. It was very annoying, until I figured out the reason and changed the battery.

You may wish to take a look at POST beep codes here:

https://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

    just BIOS is the only reference that sounds relevant when you read the descriptions, but the sound examples I've found are all very different from what I hear. it's also strange that the alarm on my 2015 Macbook Pro sounded almost exactly the same as on my brand new StarLabs MKIV. There's a 5 beep BIOS alarm for CMOS battery, but again, this laptop is brand new so that sounds unlikely.

    I'm wondering if it's something that's shared between Budgie and Gnome? Maybe an alarm from a service or something?

      putzerstammer No, checked those all.

      This alarm sounds more like an alarm from an old digital watch (and no, I'm not wearing one 😃)
      I'm getting more and more convinced that it's something Gnome related

        Axios I stripped down Solus and Manjaro (no messengers for instance) and I still get it sometimes 😁 It's some weird shit but I'll figure it out one day. I suspected the Evolution processes for a while, even though notifications are switched off

          Does it happen with a live OS? Did you check journalctl for any errors or oddities? dmesg?

            Leandros_Adigard I check journalctl but nothing immediately jumped out. Having said that, I'm probably not knowledgeable to spot everything that's relevant. Same with dmesg.

            One thing my two laptops have in common is onboard Intel graphics, so I'm going to have a closer look at everything related to that next time my good friends the chirps come back

              I love a good mystery but this should be simple to narrow down immediately, not necessarily simple to answer.
              I understand the 5 beeps come randomly.
              If you hear it thru your headphones/speakers=software
              if you hold your ear close to laptop body when this happens and you suspect it's inside yr box it's hardware.

              If hardware it's not always battery-related afaik, sometimes its memory and more..
              and why can't it be a 'mac thing'?
              you did not say you made any moves in the bios so I'm assuming you didn't.

              You said on you first laptop it was 'after login.'
              For your second laptop you say no more after login? Just random beeps whenever? Did you say what your new laptop was? if mac, maybe mac thing?
              Like I said love a good mystery. If it's the same OS (solus?), on two laptops also running MAC, and both laptops are made by the same company then we'd be somewhere.
              Then the weird part would be 'only at login' for laptop A and totally random on laptop B, re: the 5 beeps.

              If your gut is saying it's a gnome thing I respect your gut. Why though?

              apologies if you answered any of my random questions. i thought i read the thread thoroughly but these work-from-home days short circuit my reasoning sometimes. these random beeps would piss me off, too.

                brent
                The new laptop is a StarLabs MKIV.
                The beeps usually come right after login (started from shutdown). Just once or twice did it happen during a session. Because of the type of beeps it's hard to pinpoint location.
                It sounds like from inside of the laptop, but I could be wrong and it could just be speakers.

                I wouldn't expect the beeps from a 2015 MacBook Pro to be exactly the same as those of a new StarLabs MKIV.
                They have little in common as far as I can tell, apart from the Intel onboard graphics maybe.

                On the Mac I had it in Pop!_OS, Manjaro and Regolith. All Gnome (Gnome/i3 mashup in case of Regolith)
                On the StarLabs I have it in Manjaro (Gnome) and Solus (Budgie). No Gnome shell in Budgie but plenty of Gnome stack of course.

                    ycooreman ok---it was never clear these were random login beeps on both units. if that's the case it's no longer random. it's while doing a specific thing, both computers.

                    Now I know why you think it's a gnome/linux issue. linux on both machines.
                    Somehow I don't think the bios and os are talking to each other the way they need to.

                    It's interesting you think it's intel/nvidia related as well. you could be right. ever see that come up in your research?

                        brent No smoking gun about Intel graphics yet. I'm hoping (well, maybe not) that it will happen again and I can find something useful in the logs. The search continues 🙂

                          It wouldn't happen to be /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/alarm-clock-elapsed.oga? In that case, you're not the only one: see StackExchange.

                            silke BINGO! That's exactly it
                            Thanks for solving the mistery silke. Much appreciated 😃

                                ycooreman Yay! But, it's only the start of the mystery 😉. I'm not sure what conditions, exactly, trigger the sound. In my case, I think it happens when Evolution has a reminder for a day-long event with an unconfigured sound.

                                    silke I had it on a Manjaro install that had nothing in the calendar at all or just displaying system notifications. I'm leaning more towards some system process notification that's getting handled in a messed up way. I'll try and figure it out.