Assuming Cinnamon on Debian Sid, the terminal bell by default is a coarse, jarring sound that startles you whenever it goes off. This sound can be tested with echo -ne 'x07'. By default, Cinnamon's terminal bell is disabled, and it's the system bell you hear. Turning on Cinnamon's bell can be done as such:
- Open
dconf-editor - Navigate to
org.cinnamon.desktop.wm.preferences - Make sure that
audible-bellis enabled - Make sure that
bell-soundis set to something that sounds pleasant (check/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/bell.oga)
At this point, the pleasant sound plays at the same time as the jarring one, the latter completely drowning out the former. Try sudo modprobe -r pcspkr to disable the jarring system sound. If that fixed it, you can make this change permanent by adding a file /etc/modprobe.d/nobeep.conf, containing the following:
# Do not load the 'pcspkr' module on boot.
blacklist pcspkr