Hi all.
As per the title, USB floppy drive is always seeking when not loaded with media, is there any way to disable this feature without actually unplugging it?
Ta in advance.
David.
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how to stop usb floppy drive looking for media in Ubuntu 22.04
To stop a USB floppy drive from looking for media in Ubuntu 22.04, you can follow these steps:
Firstly, check if the floppy module is loaded. You can do this by running:
lsmod | grep floppy
This command will list the loaded kernel modules, and if the floppy module is present, it will indicate its usage count. If the usage count is 0, you can proceed to unload the module. Otherwise, you’ll need to identify and stop any processes using the floppy module before proceeding.
To unload the floppy module, run:
sudo rmmod floppy
If the module is in use, you’ll receive an error message. In this case, you’ll need to identify and stop the process using the module. You can use tools like lsof or fuser to determine which process is holding the module.
Once the module is unloaded, you can blacklist it to prevent it from being loaded again during boot. Edit the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file using a text editor, such as nano or vim, and add the following line at the end:
blacklist floppy
Save the changes and reboot your system. The USB floppy drive should no longer attempt to access media.
Note that if you have a USB floppy drive that you still want to use for other purposes, you can create a udev rule to ignore it and prevent the floppy module from being loaded. This can be done by creating a new file in the /etc/udev/rules.d directory (e.g., 99-floppy-blacklist.rules) with the following contents:
ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/echo blacklist floppy > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist"
This rule will trigger the addition of the blacklist floppy line to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file whenever a USB floppy drive is plugged in.
I think it can be disabled from the BIOS like you can do with other built-in devices, like webcam and wireless card for example.
I think he just wants access to it when it's needed, not totally disable it. 
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