If you’re like me, more than once you’ve taken your Powerbook or iBook into a library, turned it on and then realized (much too late) that the chime sound is really annoying to those around you. I ran into this problem just this past weekend as I went into my local public library to test the new free Wi-Fi installation. Thus today’s tip offers the results of some research I did later—two ways I found to control that sound, at least if you’re running OS X 10.2 or later.
The easy way…
Arcana Research offers a freeware preference pane that gives you control over the startup chime. I’ve tested this one and it works well. You will have to restart your machine after installing this software. To get a copy of the software, visit:
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~arcana/StartupSound/index.en.html
And as promised, a somewhat more involved method…
I also tested this approach and it’s the one I’m now using. It requires a bit more familiarity with the unix underpinings of OS X but you have complete control (and knowledge) over what’s going on. Using your favorite programming editor, create the following file as /etc/rc.shutdown.local. Note that the display here shows a bit of line wrapping on line 3 (“echo OUTPUT_MUTED…”). You will want to enter that (and the text on the next line that begins “settings…”) as a single line in your script:
OSA=/usr/bin/osascript
echo OUTPUT_MUTED=`$OSA -e “output muted of (get volume settings)”` > /etc/volume.settings
${OSA} -e “set volume with output muted”
Then create another file called /etc/rc.local:
OSA=/usr/bin/osascript
if [ -r /etc/volume.settings ]; then
. /etc/volume.settings
if [ $OUTPUT_MUTED = “false” ]; then
${OSA} -e “set volume without output muted”
fi
fi
The first file mutes the system volume on shutdown, and saves the previous volume setting in the /etc/volume.settings file. When your system boots, the second file “unmutes” the speaker and restores the volume setting to what it was prior to shutdown.
If you already have local startup & shutdown files (e.g., rc.local and rc.shutdown.local), then just modify those files adding these lines.
If you’re interested in reading a bit more about the history of the startup sound, visit musicthing.blogspot.com.