The command line: /bin/echo -e "\007" in bash will ring the bell. With the line: /bin/echo -e "\007" in my crontab I expected the bell to ring every minute, but it's silent. I know crontab is working because the line: /bin/touch $HOME/jkjkjk updates the file jkjkjk every minute as it should. I found a posting some years ago suggesting that standard output should be directed to /dev/tty1 in crontab. But the line: /bin/echo "\007" /dev/tty1 Still fails. What to try next?