to play a sound you can also use mplayer too # if you don't have # sudo apt-get install mplayer mplayer testmp3.mp3 # it can play mp3, ogg, wav, aac etc etc for the gps data i don't know seems there's not a command dbus line to switch on/off the gps radio, there's a python script that makes it. If you want to try using jython maybe it can works