How can I disable all "Ubuntu sounds"?

Sometimes Ubuntu issues sounds for certain events. For example, when a user logs out, Ubuntu plays a short drum beat snippet.

These "sounds" are nice quality. But I need a "soundless" sound profile to prevent any noise when I operate in quiet environments. How can I prevent Ubuntu from issuing any sounds? With Microsoft Windows, I can just select a "No Sound" profile.

I tried Sound > Sound Effects > Alert Volume = Mute. but this does nothing.

Solution 1:

On Ubuntu 14.04, running this command solved it for me instantly:

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/sound/event-sounds false

Solution 2:

To mute the Alert Sounds along with the login/logout sounds:

Using Ubuntu Tweak

Install Ubuntu Tweak

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Once installed, launch it and select Tweaks, then Sounds to make your selections:

Without using Ubuntu Tweak

Open the Sound Menu in System

This will diasable the Alert Sounds. To also disable the login sound we first have to make Gnome Login Sound visable in startup Applications. To do this, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and enter:

sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome/autostart/libcanberra-login-sound.desktop

In the gedit window that opens, change the line that reads "NoDisplay=true" to "NoDisplay=false".

Open your Startup Applications through the Dash and then make sure Gnome Login Sound is unslected:

Note: Disabling Gnome Login Sounds does not work for later versions of Ubuntu. For that you can disable the login sounds by Muting the sound at the login screen. However, sometimes this transfers over to the user making you have to un-mute when logged in. But it will stick in the login screen.*

Solution 3:

Like you I like a silent computer & I dislike the Ubuntu drum sound on start-up & reboot.

My solution to silence my computer was to get an old set of headphones, or ones that no longer work, and cut off the cord at the headphone jack and place the remaining headphone jack in the headphone socket on the computer. When you want to listen to sounds take out the silencing headphone jack.

It's crude and a software/system setting solution would be better, but it works!

Solution 4:

The Sound Preferences dialog is a bit mysterious since not everything has an obvious effect.

There are, however, a couple of things that seem to be useful here:

• Set the "Sound theme" to "No sounds"
• Disable the checkbox for "Enable window and button sounds"

• Open the dialog in Ubuntu MATE: System->Preferences->Sound
• Open the dialog from the MATE command line: mate-volume-control
• Just guessing, but this might be gnome-volume-control when not using MATE desktop