Turns off Num Lock ?

[GregM]

This just started when I went to 16.04
I check the BIOS and it is set correctly.
I see the keyboard light for NumLock come on while it's booting but when Kubuntu starts up the light goes out and I have to manually push the button.

I can't find a setting which would make this happen.

Help?

[Rod J]

Go into System Settings, Hardware, Input Devices, Keyboard, Hardware tab, and choose your preferred option in "NumLock on Plasma Startup". I choose "Turn on" so it's always on when I start the system.

[GregM]

I always love these detailed answers since I rarely know what I'm doing with this "tricky" (for me) stuff.
Thanks
We'll see how it works in the morning. Got to go right now

Thanks again

[GregM]

I had a couple minutes I didn't know I had so I tried it and it didn't work

[GregM]

Further reading...
Seems to be a very common problem with no solution that I can find

[Rod J]

I'm not certain but your settings in Desktop Session might override the previous setting.

Go to System Settings, Workspace, Startup and Shutdown, Desktop Session, On Login. I have mine set to "Start with an empty session" so I start with a default desktop each time. If you have "Restore previous session" selected it may be overriding the numlock setting and turning it off again. If you want to keep "Restore previous session" selected just make sure that numlock is turned on and then log off or restart/shutdown the system then it should retain the setting for numlock from then on.

[kubicle]

If you want Numlock on at the login screen (SDDM), you need to put Numlock=on under the [General] section in /etc/sddm.conf, see this thread for details: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?t=71924

[GregM]

I'm not to good at doing things like this. Can you tell me where on this page I would put the Numlock=on command?

[kubicle]

Can you tell me where on this page I would put the Numlock=on command?

Unfortunately, all sddm configuration options are not exposed in the SystemSettings module...and this is one of them.

To make the change, you need to manually edit the configuration file /etc/sddm.conf.

We can give you step-by-step instructions on how to do that (if you are unsure), but first check whether the file /etc/sddm.conf already exists on your machine.

[Rog131]

Qt SDDM configuration editor

A Qt gui: https://github.com/hagabaka/sddm-config-editor

Description

This is to be a graphical editor for Simple Desktop Display Manager's configuration file. It is in early alpha.

There is a Ruby version and a C++ version of this program. They (should) have the same functionality...

[GregM]

There is an sddm folder in etc but all it has in it is a file called Xsession which Dolphin says is a shell script.

[kubicle]

@Rog:
Nice find, hopefully that will make the repos in the future.

There is an sddm folder in etc but all it has in it is a file called Xsession which Dolphin says is a shell script.

So no "sddm.conf" file in /etc, only the "sddm" folder?
If so, you should be able to create a default sddm.conf file by:
1. Start "konsole" terminal application
2. Run:

sddm --example-config | sudo tee /etc/sddm.conf

(This should save a default config file as /etc/sddm.conf...give your password when asked)
3. Report back when you've done that (you could also post the contents of the new /etc/sddm.conf), and we'll give you instructions on modifying the settings (if you need them)

[GregM]

I did your terminal command and it produce sddm.conf with this content. It is not in the sddm folder, it is just in etc.
I tried to change the Numlock=none to Numlock=on but it would not allow me to modify the file and save it

[Autologin]
# Autologin again on session exit
Relogin=false

# Autologin session
Session=plasma.desktop

# Autologin user
User=greg

[General]
# Halt command
HaltCommand=/bin/systemctl poweroff

# Initial NumLock state
# Valid values: on|off|none
# If property is set to none, numlock won't be changed
Numlock=none

# Reboot command
RebootCommand=/bin/systemctl reboot

[Theme]
# Current theme name
Current=breeze

# Cursor theme
CursorTheme=

# Face icon directory
# The files should be in username.face.icon format
FacesDir=/usr/share/sddm/faces

# Theme directory path
ThemeDir=/usr/share/sddm/themes

[Users]
# Default $PATH
DefaultPath=/bin:/usr/bin

# Hidden shells
# Users with these shells as their default won't be listed
HideShells=

# Hidden users
HideUsers=

# Maximum user id for displayed users
MaximumUid=60000

# Minimum user id for displayed users
MinimumUid=1000

# Remember the session of the last successfully logged in user
RememberLastSession=true

# Remember the last successfully logged in user
RememberLastUser=true

[WaylandDisplay]
# Wayland session script path
# A script to execute when starting the desktop session
SessionCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/wayland-session

# Session description directory
SessionDir=/usr/share/wayland-sessions

[XDisplay]
# Xsetup script path
# A script to execute when starting the display server
DisplayCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

# Xstop script path
# A script to execute when stopping the display server
DisplayStopCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop

# Minimum VT
# The lowest virtual terminal number that will be used.
MinimumVT=7

# X server arguments
ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp

# X server path
ServerPath=/usr/bin/X

# Xsession script path
# A script to execute when starting the desktop session
SessionCommand=/etc/sddm/Xsession

# Session description directory
SessionDir=/usr/share/xsessions

# Xauth path
XauthPath=/usr/bin/xauth

# Xephyr path
XephyrPath=/usr/bin/Xephyr

[kubicle]

I tried to change the Numlock=none to Numlock=on but it would not allow me to modify the file and save it

This is because your regular user (greg) doesn't have write access to the system files (for security reasons). To modify such files, you need to temporarily elevate your privileges to the "root" user (that owns most system files). You can do that with the sudo command (you might have noticed it's use in the previous command, it's the part of command that asked for your password).

There more than a few ways you can go about this, I'll give you a few (you only need to use one of them):

A. One-liner (run in konsole):

sudo sed -i s/Numlock=none/Numlock=on/ /etc/sddm.conf

(This command will change Numlock=none to Numlock=on)

B. CLI editor (nano)

sudo nano /etc/sddm.conf

(This will open the file in the command line "nano" editor for editing, after edits, use ctrl+o (and enter) to save and ctrl+x to exit.

C. GUI editor (kate)

sudo -i kate /etc/sddm.conf

or

kdesudo kate /etc/sddm.conf

(These will open the file in the regular GUI editor for editing)

A few additional notes:
- Always use the "-i" option if using sudo with a GUI program (as shown in method C). Alternatively, you can use "kdesudo" instead of "sudo -i".
- The GUI method will be deprecated in the next version of kubuntu (but will still work with versions up to 17.04). From 17.10 onwards, you can just open a system file from dolphin and kate will ask for authentication once you try to save it (if your regular user doesn't have write access)...so this will be easier in the future.
- I see that you have autologin enabled (for user greg) in sddm, I'm not 100% sure whether the Numlock=on will work if autologin is enabled, but try it out and report back.

[wizard10000]

...I see that you have autologin enabled (for user greg) in sddm, I'm not 100% sure whether the Numlock=on will work if autologin is enabled, but try it out and report back.

I'm 100% sure it doesn't work on my machine (Debian Unstable, Plasma 5.8.6) with autologin enabled. Haven't tried turning autologin off, though.