[Qemu-devel] Re: Question about KVM and PC speaker

[Jan Kiszka]

Simon Bienlein wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I do my first Stepps with KVM on my Debian Lenny system. I recognized
> the following:
> 
> If I boot the Debian Install CD on the wirtsystem a audible signal is
> played if the boot menu appears. If I boot the CD in the virtual KVM
> machine, the audible bell is not played.
> 
> I hear the beep if I am in the bash of the wirtsystem and press the
> backspace key on the start of the line. The PC speaker works therefore.
> 
> How can I configure KVM so that the PC speaker also works in the VM?
> Supports the BIOS PC Speaker beeps?

Nope, not yet. Neither QEMU nor KVM (with its in-kernel handling of the
involved timer chip) translates the guest's speaker settings into
anything audible. But that should be feasible.

For KVM's in-kernel handling some new interface would have to be
established, for QEMU it should even be simpler. It just takes someone
with time and motivation to dig into this.

> 
> The environment variable QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa is set and I run KVM with
> the option -soundhw all.

You may succeed with this approach when redirecting the guest's console
beep to the sound card of your virtual machine. There is
http://www.carcosa.net/jason/software/beep which claims to do that, but
I never tried.

> 
> Thank you very much for your help in advance.
> 
> Simon
> Website: <http://www.linux-fuer-blinde.de>
> 

Jan

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