Ubuntu forgets to add new system sounds for Lucid…

By , Published March 15, 2010

Ubuntu many be getting a visual refresh for 10.04 but don't expect an audible one as well. The system sound theme will likely be staying the same €“ and not on purpose!

A commenter on Mark Shuttleworth's blog asked whether there would be an updated sound theme to match the new branding, jogging the memory of our self-appointed benevolent dictator for life and getting this response: -

Mark Shuttleworth: Gack, I completely forgot about that. A very good point. Would you see if you can rally a round of community submissions for a sound theme inspired by light?

User Submissions

Parameter on the Ubuntu Forums has taken the initiative and opened a thread calling for submissions. Users can post their thoughts, discussions and ideas for system sounds in this thread.

A bug report can be found @ https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-sounds/+bug/539169

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • http://pensieriacoriandoli.blogspot.com/ Giorg

    I can’t believe that… :-

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    One of the things that i hate about Ubuntu is the Jungle Sound.

    BTW i like the new OMG! U! twitter logo, but did you try to write the text using the same font from the new Ubuntu Logo

    • http://twitter.com/Nickedynick Nick Stringer

      Really? It’s one of the things I love! It’s instantly recognisable – I heard it on the train once and found myself looking around trying to figure out who had an Ubuntu laptop :P

      I suppose it doesn’t really fit in with the theming anymore, but it tied in brilliantly with the Human theming.

      • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

        its kinda-of a taste after all

      • http://dylantaylor.wordpress.com/ aliendude5300

        I also really like the Ubuntu jungle sounds… :D I agree completely, but I’d like to see them stay — they really make Ubuntu unique!

  • lol

    The Alert Volume by default is set to 0 % so it doesn’t really matter.

    • Yfrwlf

      That’s because the crackles and pops of Pulse Audio has marred Ubuntu sound effects possibly until now. I think some issues with PA may have finally gotten fixed but don’t quote me on that, haven’t tested it enough yet, just with a particular game. :x

  • Anonymous

    light? make a storm-light is easy! zzzzzssshhhhhhhh ;D

  • http://www.linuxmint.com/ Jimbo

    One of the things that i love about Ubuntu is the Jungle Sound.

  • Anonymous

    I would like to see a sound theme based on the following:

    http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Feather+Sound+Set?content=90916

    The Feather sound set is so mind-bogglingly awesome. Simplistic, unique, and not annoying.

    Make it so!

  • Mirek2

    I really like the current sound theme. I think it’s much better than what either Windows or Mac OS has, I think it represents the heart of Ubuntu well and I don’t think there’s really a need, out of all the things one needs in Ubuntu, for a new sound scheme.
    But if someone comes up with a better scheme (which will be hard to do, by the way), then I’m all for it.

  • Mirek2

    I really like the current sound theme. I think it’s much better than what either Windows or Mac OS has, I think it represents the heart of Ubuntu well and I don’t think there’s really a need, out of all the things one needs in Ubuntu, for a new sound scheme.
    But if someone comes up with a better scheme (which will be hard to do, by the way), then I’m all for it.

  • Anonymous

    The first thing I do after installing Ubuntu is turning off system sounds and blacklisting the pcspkr module. That way, my computer doesn’t make noise during bootup, and my terminal doesn’t back talk me if I press backspace one too many times.

  • Anonymous

    The first thing I do after installing Ubuntu is turning off system sounds and blacklisting the pcspkr module. That way, my computer doesn’t make noise during bootup, and my terminal doesn’t back talk me if I press backspace one too many times.

  • Anonymous

    Ha! I was wondering about system sounds.

  • Anonymous

    Ha! I was wondering about system sounds.

  • Mohan

    Ah baga, he forgot…LMAO! I was wondering the same thing and it looks like I wasn’t the only one.

  • Anonymous

    That’s hilarious! xD

    I can understand the need to create a new sound theme, what with the whole visual refresh and all, but it will be kinda odd when I install Lucid. The first thing that really grabbed me back when I first tried Ubuntu was the sound theme. In fact, I think it left the strongest impression on me and I loved it. That and the wallpaper (Intrepid’s default) really grabbed me from the beginning. After that, I explored it, experimented, and I’m totally hoooked now.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think sound themes are as often created as every other kind of theme for gnome desktops. There is definitely a small emphasis on it.

  • http://sloshy.livejournal.com/ Ryan Peters

    The all-knowing design team didn’t think about the sound theme? It’s nice that they’re actually going to listen to the community for an official sound theme though :D!

    • http://mpt.net.nz/ mpt

      Yes, we did think about it and have a plan for it. Just not for Lucid.

      • http://sloshy.livejournal.com/ Ryan Peters

        You mean for Lucid +1? Why not for the LTS release, which is supposedly more important? I’m not bashing you or the design team, I’m just curious why it would have slipped your minds.

  • http://livinginagoogleworld.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Frederickson

    Wait. Wait. He just forgot? Really? This huge visual refresh and he just forgot about the sounds? That’s… kinda funny. XD

  • Jon

    Something that Ubuntu really needs is a way to use sound themes. I’m always stuck either with the default or trying to tweak them manually.

    Borealis is a great sound theme to use, even if it’s for KDE. Ambient, soft and dreamy.
    http://www.ubuntu-art.org/content/show.php/%22Borealis%22+sound+theme?content=12584

    Gack!

  • floborg

    Too bad sound theme customization is broken in Karmic+.

    • Name

      Along with 95% of other useful features….

      • Yfrwlf

        Maybe it’s time they focus on polishing and fixing and improving what they have instead of radical new features, huh?

        • Name

          Indeed. They lost me with 9.10.

          Still massive problems on netbooks/ laptops, such as suspend failing about 25% of the time, battling with the screen brightness (why can’t it just remember the level I set it to) and then more generic stuff like screen fading out when watching movies etc… Sigh…

        • floborg

          Actually, they moved this bug “upstream” to Gnome. Gnome has been toying with things lately that already work just fine. There’s no reason I can think of for Ubuntu to always use the latest Gnome. I say use a version with no new bugs, or patch it so that we don’t have huge regressions all the time.

    • Yfrwlf

      Yes, sound has been completely neglected, as are a lot of things (like mouse pointer themes while desktop effects is enabled).

      I’d like to see the new Gnome speaker test come prettified with a new set of themes. Why has Vista so completely stolen the cake in this area? It’s pretty sad.

      I hope it’s all not simply due to the 700 MB restriction but wouldn’t be too surprised…though if encoding in Vorbis you should get pretty good compression..

  • Donny

    Honestly, save from blog posts like this one, on which the sound theme is the only subject, finding people saying “the Ubuntu sound theme is great” or “the Ubuntu sound theme is awful” is so rare (for example, in the forums), that I can’t really blame Mark for forgetting that.

  • crada

    How about a “Custom” option under sound themes and a place to browse to the sound you would like to use and choose it?? Please tell me I’m not the first to think of this! I would do one of the “mock-ups” that seem to be so popular these days, but what is there to mock-up??!?! A simple selection for “custom” and the ability to choose a sound file. One thing that would be nice would be to one-up MS by adding the ability to customize sounds to events and specific icons. That would be sweet! Heck, even allow you to save sound themes like you can appearance themes! OR even a program that would allow easier customizing of the sound events!!

    • bhm

      No you’re not.

      It was in Jaunty. It didn’t work most of the time. Either didn’t play the sound, played default one or just played default even when disabled.

      • crada

        Yeah, I remember that! It totally blew and I was expecting that to be fixed by now. If Bill Gates can do it then I’m sure Linux-heads can do something better.

        If awesome, easy to use software like Activity Journal, Alien Arena, and Openshot can be made, then Audio Events should be a cinch! I NEED to have Boingy-sounding windows to go with my Compiz WobBLy windows in order to properly impress people with the awesomeness that is Ubuntu/Linux O/S!

        I feel cheated >:(

        • http://getopenid.com/snostorm Dieki

          How can you feel cheated? Ubuntu is free. You didn’t pay for it.

          • crada

            I did not say I feel like I was cheated out of any $$$!!!! Heck no!! I feel cheated because my windoes are wobbly but no corresponding sound effect. >:( !!!!!!!

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            Just what would a wobbly window sound effect sound like…. ?

            *goes on hunt for wobbly window sfx*

          • Zachariah Thomas

            Like the usage of pulseaudio to warp the sounds you hear from that application…
            Just Messn, but it’d be pretty neat.

    • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ Dylan McCall

      We do have sound themes; the specification for them is even based on the icon theme specification. Unfortunately there aren’t many choices out there using the standard format and, indeed (as you’ve observed) no GUI that lets us install them like with visual theme stuff in Gnome appearance preferences. (Not that there is any demand, given the lack of sound themes).

  • hugmyballs

    This is yet another area where KDE (and Kubuntu) fart in the mouth of gnome (and Ubuntu).

  • hugmyballs

    This is yet another area where KDE (and Kubuntu) fart in the mouth of gnome (and Ubuntu).

  • Chris Lees

    How can you have a sound theme inspired by light? Isn’t that like listening to a painting, or watching the radio?

  • Chris Lees

    How can you have a sound theme inspired by light? Isn’t that like listening to a painting, or watching the radio?

    • http://sythe.me Xavier Sythe

      I love listening to paintings, AND watching the radio! ;)

    • http://sythe.me Xavier Sythe

      I love listening to paintings, AND watching the radio! ;)

  • Bill

    people actually enable the system sounds?

    • hugmyballs

      If you’re in KDE you might. The global notification system is awesome. Sounds for Kopete instant messaging, arrival of new mail, completion of torrent/browser/etc. transfers.

      • http://sythe.me Xavier Sythe

        I enable them in KDE. They’re great.

      • http://sythe.me Xavier Sythe

        I enable them in KDE. They’re great.

  • Anonymous

    Hillarious!

    Plus, it reminds us that Ubuntu is made by actual human beings, and opens up an opportunity for the community to contribute once more.

  • Zsolt Sándor

    Or maybe they could use the UbuntuStudio sounds. I use them with a full blown Elementary theme.

  • daas88

    I like the sounds that mads rosenhal proposed. Specially the owl one!
    http://anotherubuntu.blogspot.com/search/label/sounds

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