Sounds for Login/Logout

This is a small collection of sounds that I've put into my .xinitrc file to play at login and logout (for details on how to do it, see below).

Login sounds

20 seconds to comply - Lovely voice... from Robocop I
Make My Day - The classic Dirty Harry quote
Welcome to Altair - From Forbidden Planet
HAL running smoothly - From 2001
HAL completely operational - From 2001, one of my favourites - "I'm completely operational and all my systems are functioning perfectly" :-)
HAL nothing serious - Yet another one from 2001
Moin Moin - Me testing the Sparc microphone (I don't always sound like that! ;-)

Logout sounds

Bang bang screeeeam - Dirty Harry's Day is made
Flush - Well...
He's Dead Jim - Trekkies unite!
I'll Be Back - Arnie rules (at least Terminator does :-)
gotta go too - Hm, now where's this from...
HAL decision - HAL from 2001 questioning our decision to log off
HAL cannot allow - HAL trying to stop us (well he won't succeed)
HAL remain here - HAL a bit out of context
HAL too important - HAL again
hasta la vista - Did I mention that Terminator rules? T2 does, too :-)

Putting it to work

Well, here's how I set the whole thing up - this is for X Windows on a SUN Sparc, so YMMV:

In your .xinitrc, somewhere near the top, include the lines

    if [ -f /bin/arch -a `/bin/arch` = "sun4" ]; then
      random_select "play -v20" $HOME/login_sounds/*.au
    fi
and add the following lines just before the last line
    if [ -f /bin/arch -a `/bin/arch` = "sun4" ]; then
      random_select "play -v20" $HOME/logout_sounds/*.au
    fi
(This assumes that you have a SUN Sparc (sun4) with audio support and the "play" program to play sounds. Don't ask me how this works on other systems with sound support.)

Then copy this small program and compile it for your system (a simple "cc -o random_select random_select.c" should do the job). Install it somewhere in your search path, e.g., in ~/bin. It performs the random selection of sounds.

Now it's all set up - logoff, login again and here you are :-)


Document created by Stefan Hänßgen.
Last updated: 03-Nov-94