Libcanberra
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Libcanberra is a simple abstract interface for playing event sounds. It implements the XDG Sound Theme and Naming Specifications for generating event sounds on free desktops, such as GNOME. Further description here
Contents
Installation
Libcanberra can be installed with the package libcanberra, available in the Official repositories. It contains the library and a GTK+ module.
You have to choose a backend to play sounds:
- ALSA backend is included in libcanberra package
- GStreamer backend can be installed with package libcanberra-gstreamer, available in the Official repositories.
- PulseAudio backend can be installed with package libcanberra-pulse, available in the Official repositories.
Also, you have to install a sound theme in order to hear any event sound:
- The default sound theme is 'freedesktop', which can be installed with the package sound-theme-freedesktop, available in the Official repositories.
- Alternatively, you can install ubuntu-soundsAUR, available in the Arch User Repository.
Configuration
By default, the GTK+ module is loaded automatically, when a GTK+ application launched. You can overwrite default settings in user's GtkSettings file:
$HOME/.gtkrc-2.0 and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
gtk-enable-event-sounds=true gtk-enable-input-feedback-sounds=true gtk-sound-theme-name=freedesktop
In GNOME, these settings are managed by gnome-settings-daemon, and the configuration is available in GSettings under org.gnome.desktop.sound schema.
Systemd
To enable bootup, shutdown and reboot sounds using canberra, enable canberra-system-bootup
service.
Tips and tricks
Write your own canberra app
You can write your own libcanberra sound events easily in some programming languages, or you can simply use bash.
Bash
- Dependency: libcanberra
hello_world.sh
#!/bin/bash canberra-gtk-play -i phone-incoming-call -d "hello world"
C
- Dependency: libcanberra
- Build with:
gcc hello_world.c -o hello_world `pkg-config --cflags --libs glib-2.0 libcanberra`
hello_world.c
#include <glib.h> #include <canberra.h> void main () { ca_context * hello; ca_context_create (&hello); ca_context_play (hello, 0, CA_PROP_EVENT_ID, "phone-incoming-call", CA_PROP_EVENT_DESCRIPTION, "hello world", NULL); g_usleep (2000000); }
Genie
- Dependency: libcanberra
- Makedependency: vala
- Build with:
valac --pkg libcanberra hello_world.gs
hello_world.gs
uses Canberra init hello: Context Context.create(out hello) hello.play (0, PROP_EVENT_ID, "phone-incoming-call", PROP_EVENT_DESCRIPTION, "hello world") Thread.usleep (2000000)
Vala
- Dependency: libcanberra
- Makedependency: vala
- Build with:
valac --pkg libcanberra hello_world.vala
hello_world.vala
using Canberra; public class HelloWorld { static void main () { Context hello; Context.create(out hello); hello.play (0, PROP_EVENT_ID, "phone-incoming-call", PROP_EVENT_DESCRIPTION, "hello world"); Thread.usleep (2000000); } }