Some further investigation on a dual-boot X60: The keys cause the same beep when used at the GRUB boot menu, as well as single-user mode, and in Windows.
There is a Windows ThinkPad-specific control panel option to turn off beep on the volume buttons. When used, it seems to turn it off for Linux as well - now all you get is a quiet click when changing the volume. I don't see anything in /proc/acpi/ibm that has the same effect though. The system beep (e.g. from GNOME Terminal) is still excessively loud, and there seems to be no way to control it other than xset b off. -- Volume up/down keys cause loud beep on some ThinkPad laptops https://launchpad.net/bugs/90818 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
