Hi Linus, Alan,

this patch has proven to be stable an useable. It hasn't changed 
since 2.2.13.

The patch affects kd_mksound and kd_nosound which are responsible for
generating sound.
The default behaviour won't be changed but it's now possible for a LKM to
hook into these calls and change the way the system bell rings.

Changes in struct timer_list made a separate patch for 2.4.0 necessary.

Please incorporante into next release of 2.{2,4} if appropriate; TIA,

  cu.
    :
    Christian