I remember issues arising due to weird default permissions when I tried to use beep, or bell (don't remember if it was the command or character [ctrl+g]). I think festival or the command used to play the startup sound in ubuntu where the easiest alternatives, as getting beep/bell to work is weird.
Pre-Edit: /usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play , according to my Ubuntu's startup applications preferences.
Pre-Edit: /usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play , according to my Ubuntu's startup applications preferences.