Minor irritation with Numlock

[russellz]

When I boot my machine the BIOS switches Numlock on however as soon as the login screen appears the Numlock goes off. As I have a French keyboard requiring shift for the numbers I habitually use the number pad. My usual passwords contain numbers and letters so, being a forgetfull old fart, I have to try two or three times to login.

Is there any way to set numlock for the login screen? I have added "numlockx on" to the startup programs but that doesn't get actioned until login.

Russell.

[RavenLX]

I'm using KDE so I went into Applications - Settings - System Settings and then in the Hardware section, go to Input Devices. On the left, select Keyboard. In the Hardware tab you'll see some options for NumLock on KDE Startup. Be sure to click in "Turn on". Click Apply, Exit the dialog and reboot. You should now get the NumLock on by default. There's also an option to Turn Off for those who rather have the NumLock off as default.

[russellz]

I'm using KDE so I went into Applications - Settings - System Settings and then in the Hardware section, go to Input Devices. On the left, select Keyboard. In the Hardware tab you'll see some options for NumLock on KDE Startup. Be sure to click in "Turn on". Click Apply, Exit the dialog and reboot. You should now get the NumLock on by default. There's also an option to Turn Off for those who rather have the NumLock off as default.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Sorry, forgot to mention I'm using Linux Mint Mate rather than KDE. There doesn't seem to be that setting in Mate - or at least I can't find it.

Russell.

[russellz]

Tried a few things;

1. I put "setleds -D +num" at the end of the rc.local file. That turned the numlock LED on but not the keyboard action.

2. I tried numlockx on in the rc.local file - no effect. I gues it only works after X has started?

Any other suggestions?

Russell

[RavenLX]

rc.local is for the terminal bootup. I would try looking for the mate login screen configuration either in the GUI or the file that it looks at when it runs. I think that is where it is either getting turned off or not present. Might want to try looking for a file: ~/.config/mate and see if it's in there somewhere.

Also your command is not turning on any numlock, just the LEDs. You need a command to turn the numlock feature on itself.

Here's another idea to try: http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.ph ... 8&start=20

[DrHu]

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/wha ... inux-35692

System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout -> Layout Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options -> turn on "Default numeric keypad keys"

Does that work, from the complaint/blog link above

It is likely from the desktop/OS viewpoint to be related to some keyboard device selection setting

[thomZz]

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/what-is-it-with-numlock-and-linux-35692

System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout -> Layout Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options -> turn on "Default numeric keypad keys"

Does that work, from the complaint/blog link above

It is likely from the desktop/OS viewpoint to be related to some keyboard device selection setting

It works for me !

Thanks, that's what i was looking for.

[russellz]

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/what-is-it-with-numlock-and-linux-35692

System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout -> Layout Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options -> turn on "Default numeric keypad keys"

Does that work, from the complaint/blog link above

It is likely from the desktop/OS viewpoint to be related to some keyboard device selection setting

That's an interesting blog. Unfortunately the solution doesn't work for me.

Russell.

[RavenLX]

I think what would be nice is a tutorial on how to turn on the numlock in each of the DEs.

[russellz]

The problem with setleds (btw with -D it sets the flags as well as the leds) is that it only seems to work from a Console and only works for that console. It doesn't work from a Terminal.

I thought it might be the Login theme so I tried a different one but no change.

The numlock light is on when BIOS does it's thing but goes off as Linux Mint starts to load so there must be something in one of the startup scripts but I can't find it

Russell.