Kill the startup sound?

[9]

On my iBook, adjusting the volume also affects the boot sound, even mutting it. The thing is, I HATE the startup sound, but I always forget to mute the sound when I reboot or shut down. Does anyone know of a way to kill the startup sound for good? If it doesn't affect the system volume otherwise, that would be even better!

[9]

Im suprised that over the past, what, 15 years? ...nobody has ever brought up silencing the startup sound? I know it can be done. Hasn't anyone thought of this before?

[msteiger]

The only solution I can think of would be two AppleScripts: No. 1 launched at startup to UNmute the sound, No. 2 at shutting down to mute sound. Perhaps a shell script could do the same?

[9]

Actually thats exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of. What I really need to know is how does one affect the system volume in a shell script?

[brodie]

theres an extension for os 9 called quiet start, but for X i dont know. maybe like msteiger says, put an applescript in your shutdown folder turning the volume down, and one in your startup turning it up.

[mervTormel]

seems like this would have to be done in open-firmware.

i kinda sorta remember that boot beep silencer of Mac OS not-X from a long time ago fiddling with the OF registers. alas, can't find it anymore.

searching google with "open firmware" +sound or possibly "boot beeps" ?...

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache...=en&lr=lang_en

[Deiri87]

I heard that the "boooong" sound when you start up the computer goes off even before the actual system starts up; therefore not being able to change or turn off the sound, literaly. Is that true?

[pmccann]

Well the sound level is Applescript-able, so it's therefore shell-scriptable: in Applescript you can have something like...

repeat with i from 0 to 7
	set volume i
	say ("The sound level is currently  " & i) using "Victoria"
end repeat

So in essence, "set volume 0" should be all you need to mute the system. Thus the following in a terminal window (or in a shell script) should also work fine:

osascript -e "set volume 0"

Of course the telling aspect is whether setting this just prior to rebooting results in the system remembering the current volume. Can't say I have great faith that it will, but worth a try!

Cheers,
Paul

[9]

Thank you, that does affect the volume level, but not the same way Im afraid. It doesn't actually mute the system volume level, so it doesn't affect the boot sound.

Is there any way to have a script that mimics a key press? If I can script a press of the 'mute' key on the keyboard, that should do it.

Thanks!

[spodie]

One way to kill all sounds coming out of your Mac is to install a dummy plug into the sound out port. This fools the Mac into thinking there are external speakers attached, routing sound through that port rather than through the internal speaker(s).

I think you can get a dummy plug at Radio Shack - and if not a dummy plug, some headphones come with adapters for different connectors. You can also cut off the plug from a pair of headphones or speakers and plug it in!

Hope this helps...

[Munky]

I read in a copy of MacUser (UK) (25 feb 2002 volume 18 no2) that the start up sound was very important as it as it shows that your hardware has passed serveral start up tests.

Quote, "Should your Mac ever suffer a hardware failure you'll hear a different sound alerting you to the problem."

Their solution: stick a pair of head phones or a blind stereo jack in the headphone socket as this will cut the internal speaker outputs.

[HyperHerod]

Yeah that's what I use, I had a pair af headphones that died, I took the plug and snipped the rest off it till just the plug and a tiny bit was left. I always leave it half-in ready to push in should I want to. One thing I've noticed is that if I put it in halfway through the startup sound, it doesn't mute it, so make sure it's in beforehand.

[9]

Thanks, good idea, but of no use to me. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a nice portable iBook if you have somthing sticking out the side all the time.

I am supprised that no one knows of a way to emulate keyboard input however. If I could just emulate a press of the mute key in a script it would solve the problem perfectly.

[JayBee]

Just to *really* noise things up, would it be possible to change the startup sound, or is it truly hardwired? I could live with something that didn't sound like a bad sample of an orchestra playing in a swamp. I know it's a bit of a classic, but you'd think that apple would be able to make it sound a bit less muddy on the new machines

[A Little Peaved!]

My memory is similar to mervTormel- the startup sound was a binary resource stored in ROM, it had some kind of constant name for use from assembly or high-level programming, if I recall.

But even though it was a standard Mac-format sound resource, it was stored as binary only and loaded during startup (and played back) far in advance of most other programming, precluding most forms of user control except for some gnarly hacks that loaded very early in the boot sequence.

[vonleigh]

Hello,

What's wrong with muting the sound before you turn off, then turning it on after you start up again?

<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...838&query=mute>



v

[MitchJi]

Hi,

There is a thread here on the topic. It works fine in OS9. The original post claimed it will work in OSX but someone else could not get it to work. See my reply there for more comments.


http://www.g4noise.com/forum/index.p...=ST&f=18&t=309

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[A Little Peaved!]

As others have posted here, and in the linked threads, there seems to be no working solution for OS X.

mini-rant: folks, please READ threads instead of just linking them here- do not simply assume they contain working solutions! Doing otherwise just wastes everyone else's time. (note: this mini-rant is NOT directed to MitchJi, who provides both helpful information and requisite warning caveat regarding the link he posted.)

Even after manually turning off or lower sound in OS X before shutting down or restarting, on startup the startup sound is at factory-preset loud volume again.

vonleigh- what happens when you try your technique on your computer???

[vonleigh]

I don't understand your mini-rant. Since there's only two links posted, I guess it's directed at me (since you exclude mitchji).

Personally I took the hint at face value (it says it works on os 9 and 10.2) and since there wasn't anything in the comments to suggest otherwise... My computers are on 24/7 so I wouldn't really know.

The original poster asked about muting the startup sound. Since I don't think there are any shutdown items in Mac OS X; the best solution seems to be that he shut down the computer using a script, and add a script to the startup items.

For example the script could look something like:

tell Application "Finder"
set volume 0 (or maybe there's a mute?)
shutdown
end tell

He can put a nice restart logo on it, slap it in the dock (or the desktop, or both) and remember to shut down the computer using that instead of the power key.

Then in the startup items he could have the other script that sets the volume at a normal level.



v

[MitchJi]

Quote: Originally posted by A Little Peaved! Even after manually turning off or lower sound in OS X before shutting down or restarting, on startup the startup sound is at factory-preset loud volume again.

Hi,

This doesn't exactly match my results on a DP867 with 10.2.4. If I manually mute or lower the volume with a script or with the slider before a restart I get the results I want. The problem is trying to automate the procedure. What I am trying to do is lower the volume at shutdown and raise it again when I logon. I got the following results:
1. If I put an Apple Script as a login item it prompts me run or quit when the system boots (so I know the script is running) but it doesn't actually change the volume.

2. If I add a LogoutHook in the /etc/ttys as specified on the Apple site and put in the path to a shell script that mutes or lowers the volume nothing happens to the volume (the script works if manually run).

3. If I add a LoginHook in the /etc/ttys as specified on the Apple site and put in the path to a shell script that raises the volume I get a blue screen and a dead keyboard when I restart. At this point my only option (I think) is to power down the computer.

BTW this is the link to the information on Apples site. The page is titled "Customizing Login and Logout Procedures"
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/...00981/CJBBAIAB

Best Wishes,

Mitch