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I am on Arch Linux and I want to disable this activity indicator light on a WD hard drive. I know there is a software on Windows for doing that, but since I am on Linux, how could I do it? This light is annoying when I am in a dark room.
Black electrical tape :D
QuickDraw McGraw here!
Came here to say "a sticker". How is this difficult? Lol
The only real reason I keep electrical tape around is to cover up LEDs.
Did anyone suggest using black electrical tape yet?
ITT
comments stating to open up the drive and disconnect the LED: 2
comments stating to try and change the firmware: 1
comments stating to use tape or nail polish: jfc so many comments
Black pen. Black sharpie. Black electrical tape. Black duct tape. Black roofing felt. Black tar. Black hole.
A piece of black, electrical tape
Probably no one's thought of this yet, but i'm going to say black electrical tape. If you put it over your eyes it takes care of all your devices at once.
Black nail polish. Two coats.
Now that it's spring, your toes can be out in style instead of inside of your Arch BTW socks
Black electrical tape
Painters tape and a sharpie. Layered.
-Autist with severe light sensitivity
Black electrical tape, work better than any software
You could always Dremel it out. First try black electrical tape.
I imagine tape would work. For example a black one specialised for electrics.
Blu tack, cheap, reusable, nondestructive, and blocks light better than tape. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_Tack
A piece of black electrical tape
The age old solution of TAPE.
Have you tried plucking your eyes out?
Based on the other comments here I'd suggest black electrical tape over the eyes first
I'd recommend an strip of paper or plastic, ideally with adhesive on one side. Ideally a dark color, like black.
Brown electrical tape, if you don't have black electrical tape.
A piece of black electrical tape.
Activity lights are useful! Try a layer (or two, or three) of matte-finish transparent tape to turn down the brightness a bit.
If that doesn't work, I recommend a bit of black electrical tape.
I found a bit of plasticine / modeling clay to be very effective.
Because in the rare case that some circuit relies on the led acting as a resistor (planned obsolescence), you'd break the device with forcefully removing it.
(the green part)
Hack the firmware. Kidding just use tape.
I am surprised everyone think the same thing as me
No, not quite everyone...
l was about to mention trying to open the case.
Seems like if you own a soldering iron, everything looks like a tinkering project... 😆
They sell travel sized rolls of that gorilla tape.
It sticks to just about anything, pretty much forever, and is totally opaque.
Should work like a charm.
Open it up and desolder the led?
Electrical tape. Black.
Matte black nail polish....works there and on annoying Bluetooth lights
Black tape
For an actual answer, it looks like WD has something called wdckit that is available on request.
I see a corresponding AUR entry that looks like it's grabbing some zip from a personal Russian CDN. Super sketchy looking tbh.
But it's possible this tool has whatever functionality the windows WD Utility uses to toggle the light in the drive's firmware.
IMO, it's not worth it. I'd just go the electrical tape route and maybe ask WD Customer Support if there's a way, and if not, ask that they support Linux better in the future.
.