Comment 18 for bug 144022

For me the problem was in ALSA, snd-hda-intel module.

$ modinfo snd-hda-intel | grep beep
parm: beep_mode:Select HDA Beep registration mode (0=off, 1=on, 2=mute switch on/off) (default=1). (array of int)

So, "modinfo" says that "beep" sound can be manipulated through "beep_mode" module parameter.
By default it is "1", but it's not working.

I've modified /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf:
...
options snd-hda-intel power_save=10 power_save_controller=Y index=0 beep_mode=1
...

Now after reboot pcspeaker works!

I think that this solution may help only for those who uses integrated audio card (when "beep" sound is produced through audio card).

My config:
Ubuntu 10.10
2.6.37-12-generic #26-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 5 18:38:48 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lspci
...
00:14.2 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) [1002:4383]
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30c2]
 Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
 Memory at 84000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
...