Supermicro sys-5018a-ftn4 no startup sound

dlogan

I hear a beep from the system speaker from the BIOS when I first power on the rackmount unit, but I'm not getting the startup or shutdown tones from pfSense. I'm not sure where to begin.

amd64 version 2.1.5

Thanks.

stephenw10

Do you mean it isn't actually starting up correctly or simply that there is no sound?

Have a look at this docs page and check that it hasn't somehow been disabled:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Disable_Sounds/Beeps

Steve

dlogan

The system is booting and functioning normally, I'm just not getting any of the beeps that I'm used to hearing on startup, shutdown, login, etc.

I checked the 3 places listed in your link and none of those apply. The first two were not disabled, and the last entry to disable all is not in the tunables table.

These are fresh installs. I'm fairly certain it's not a hardware problem because I have 3 brand new identical machines and all 3 don't play sounds.

I'm guessing pfsense isn't loading the "driver" for the system speaker?

stephenw10

I don't think a driver is required. The system speaker is a low level bit of hardware that should be standard on any pc. Perhaps it's at a nonstandard location in that hardware or it doesn't have a system speaker and the bios is using a sound chip that does require a driver.

Steve

miken32

@dlogan:

I hear a beep from the system speaker from the BIOS when I first power on the rackmount unit, but I'm not getting the startup or shutdown tones from pfSense. I'm not sure where to begin.

amd64 version 2.1.5

Thanks.

I'm confirming the same thing. Until now I had just thought they removed the beep in 2.2. There is a speaker on board, and it is enabled by default (jumper settings can use an external speaker as well.) I can't imagine why, after 30 years, a PC manufacturer would change their BIOS to put the speaker at a different address.

stephenw10

Yes, the FW-7551 is the same.
It has a speaker. It beeps at POST when the bios tests the hardware. pfSense is unable to play the startup tune through it.
I spent a while investigating it myself and having failed I asked the devs about it. Turns out they had looked into it previously and also not found an explanation.
The most likely cause I can see is that the speaker hardware is somehow in a different logical location but I agree it seems like an odd decision.

Steve

iorx

BUMP! Me to! :) SYS-5018A-FTN4

Boot up beep is there but no sound from within pfSense, startup/shutdown/reboot… :(

Link to HW: http://www.supermicro.com.tw/products/system/1U/5018/SYS-5018A-FTN4.cfm?parts=SHOW

Any update on this?

pfSense 2.2.4

tha_toadman

I'll pile on and mention that my new Lanner unit is not playing these sounds at startup or shutdown. Is there anything I can run or provide to help troubleshoot this?

Guest

Is there anything I can run or provide to help troubleshoot this?

Jump into the BIOS and activate Power on self test (POST) perhaps you will hear the beep
then before pfSense is booting. And it is like it is, the POST will be done before any kind of
OS will booting, but only during the boot phase, so no OS can be involved in this.

tha_toadman

Jump into the BIOS and activate Power on self test (POST) perhaps you will hear the beep
then before pfSense is booting.

I do hear this beep when it POST's. It's the pfSense startup/shutdown chime that I don't hear. This feature would be nice to have back as the unit is headless.

Guest

@tha_toadman:

Jump into the BIOS and activate Power on self test (POST) perhaps you will hear the beep
then before pfSense is booting.

I do hear this beep when it POST's. It's the pfSense startup/shutdown chime that I don't hear. This feature would be nice to have back as the unit is headless.

Perhaps also interesting for you to know Beeper problem

stephenw10

If any of you come up with a solution to this, I'd love to hear it. (in all senses of that!)

Steve

iorx

Got limited knowledge of BSD but here my google aquired info on beep in BSD

# sysctl -a | grep hw.syscons.bell
hw.syscons.bell: 1

That means thats the hardware is found and that kernelmodule is loaded as long; as I understand it.

# beep

doesn't beep

# echo "BP" > /dev/speaker

Got the silent treatment from the above also…

So I still got a very nice and quiet box* when it comes to boot up, shutdown and restart. :)

[SYS-5018A-FTN4 & pfSense 2.2.4]

Guest

From dlogan:

Supermicro sys-5018a-ftn4 & amd64 version 2.1.5

From iorx:

SYS-5018A-FTN4 & pfSense 2.2.4

And based on this informations I was posting the link where another
member (@robi) was posting the following comment about:
This tune is not played by Supermicro boards for some reason.

iorx

Yes, and? :)
I'm I missing something here? Should I use a different thread?

More people have the issue but no one got an solution what I can see.

I was just going to rule out that I haven't missed something obvious by showing what I tried.

miken32

I guess still no update on this? Surprising that devs haven't been able to figure this one out, since they sell the hardware. It's a great feature when you have to remote troubleshoot over the phone with someone who is clueless!

tha_toadman

Unfortunately there's been no update. It is the last missing feature that I have yet to resolve.

cmb

We haven't even looked at it prior to now. At a quick review, it doesn't work in 2.3 either on that hardware. That's so far down my list of priorities it won't get any attention for 2.3 at a minimum. If someone wants to dig into it, you're more than welcome. It's either a hardware issue or a FreeBSD issue.