The Bothersome Beep
Ubuntu is designed to provide immediate auditory feedback. If you press the Backspace key too many times in a terminal window, attempt to click outside a modal dialogue box, or hit an invalid shortcut combination, the system will instantly fire off a loud “System Alert Sound” (often a sharp ‘drip’ or ‘bloop’ noise). If you work in a quiet office environment, or simply prefer to listen to music while you work without sudden, jarring interruptions, these constant auditory reprimands for minor typing errors can quickly become maddening.
Muting the Alerts
To regain your peace and quiet and stop Ubuntu from automatically playing system alert sounds for every minor error, you must mute the specific system sound channel.
Open the main Ubuntu application launcher and click on Settings. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Sound. Scroll down the main right-hand panel until you reach the “System Sounds” section. Here you will see a slider controlling the specific volume of these alerts. You can either drag the slider all the way to the left (zero volume) or, more simply, click the toggle switch next to System Sounds to completely turn it Off. This setting is completely independent of your main system volume; you will still hear audio from YouTube, Spotify, or your video games perfectly, but the annoying terminal beeps will be permanently silenced.