PPC Kernel Update HDD LED nerves

[Eric Dunbar]

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 19:22:10 +0100, Marek Werstak <marexmail at web> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> after an apt-get upgrade a new version of the kernel was installed and
> the HDD Activity LED nerves now per default. Please turn it off again.
> It is cooler to see the Heart Beat when the *Books are sleeping.

I filed a Bug Report on the problem:
https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7229

The "throbbing sleep light" or "sleep light" (for pre-throb G3s ;-)
should ONLY be used for sleeping. It's EXTREMELY irritating to have
that light flashing whenever there's disk access. Not only that, but I
question the safety of doing so -- the circuitry for that sleep
indicator was never designed to handle this.

What I don't understand is why this change was made in the first
place. It violates two rules.

#1 it runs COMPLETELY counter to what Macintosh users expect and adds
LITTLE to NOTHING to the computing experience while detracting from it
(this ain't exactly a small little UNOBTRUSIVE LED that we're talking
about) (and, of course, we Mac users do tend to expect more from our
computers than our i86 counterparts since we're spoiled with nothing
but the best in design... none of those million and one LEDs and other
crap like that).

#2 (more important) Hoary is into feature freeze IIRC and this
certainly is a new "feature" (it pains me to call it a feature since
it's downright horrible... I'd hate to use tape or put something there
and deface my computer but I'm pretty desperate (after using it for
the whole of 10 minutes) I'm going to have to figure out how to
downgrade the kernel if it doesn't go away soon).

Eric