Time-stamp: <2014-03-21 21:13:26 mw>

Simple pcspkr alarm clock for linux
===================================

* Install beep from http://www.johnath.com/beep/ 

  Debian/Ubuntu etc. has a package "beep" containing it.
  
  OpenSuSE does apparently not have a package so I installed it from
  source.

  Careful: it installs to /usr/bin rather than /usr/local/bin by
  default and needs setuid root to be able to write to the first
  virtual console, so install it by hand via

	make
	sudo install -m4755 beep /usr/local/bin/beep
	sudo install -m644 beep.1.gz /usr/local/man/man1/beep.1.gz

  See the manpage for restricting access to the beep utility by
  creating a beep group and adding users to it. On a single user
  system (or in case only people have access to your machine who won't
  annoy you) you can omit this.

* Install and enable atd/at

  This beats cron for one-time tasks because you can specify relative
  time and it will only be executed once and you can manage it via
  atq(1)/atrm(1)

  OpenSuSE:

	systemctl enable atd.service
	systemctl start atd.service

* It should be working now. Usage example:

	echo beep -f 844 -r 20 | at now+20min

Bourne shell alias
------------------

	alias alarm='echo beep -f 844 -r 20 | at '


Alternatively use e.g. mplayer in xterm from atd, but pcspkr works
even if I don't have my headphones on and doesn't require a running X
session.

Also beep(1) works if X11 bell is disabled via e.g. "xset -b"

This will not work properly on BSD as their at(1) is not a separate
daemon and runs every 5 minutes from cron, i.e. it's best not to use
it as a timer for your toaster. Besides, pcspkr is a linux specific
kernel module and beep uses ioctl, so you will need to look for
another program that beeps via the PC speaker.