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.
why not a tape, black, for electrical things
Duct tape
I would advise against using black electrical tape. It would be better to use black duct tape.
Black tape
Have you tried plugging and unplugging it? It should solve your problem
You know those rubber feet things you can get that you put on furniture legs? I love those. Block out the LED lights on the air conditioning in the bedroom, computers, etc.
I think black nail polish can work too, if you know any BTGGs.
Why don't you solve the problem at the root? Take it apart and rip it out.
Try brightnessctl. If it does not recognize it, go with some tape I guess.
Disassemble it then rip the led
Orient it so the LED is facing away from you, with the LED facing a surface covered with Vantablack or some such equivalent. This saves on tape etc...
Masking take and permanent marker or pen works too if you don't have electical tape.
Any arts store or online you can get a sheet of dark coloured stickers for cheaps that have become essential in modern life. Quick, easy, removable. Even on nova-quality LEDs where light still escapes, you can double up.
On several over-bright backlit LCD screens, where I still need to read the info, I create a simple hinge with thin cardboard and a short strip of sticky tape. Cardboard flaps down but can be lifted up to see the info.
If the setting is saved by the drive you could set it on a windows machine and then switch it back to linux.
I'm not sure if wine for running whatever the window utility youre thinking of is would work for controlling an external device like that
I don't think WINE would work, because it likely relies on a custom driver.
If you don't have a Windows installation, booting into a WinPE LiveCD (like Sergei Strelec's WinPE: https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sergei_strelecs_winpe.html) and installing it in the live environment should work. Running Windows in a VM should work too, if you pass the USB drive through to the VM.
A tape?
Close your eyes
Why limit it to a specific OS? Open it up and inline a resistor, say 680 ohm or so.
Or wire a simple on-off switch. Or both ;)
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