knowing when the computer is booted

[Roy Nickelson]

hi,
how do you know when the computer is booted with linux. With windows I get a
nice startup sound and jaws starts talking. With linux I just have to wait
until the hard drive stops. Unfortunantely with the drive I have this isn't
a good solution because it is too quiet.
i have a line in my lilo.conf file that says
speakup_dectlk

this is on the same line that starts with append = and has some other stuff
that I don't remember. I am using redhat 9.
Roy