Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

[Jim1911]

With KDE4, Jaunty, there is no option in System Settings, Keyboard & Mouse to control Numlock key actions or any other key on the numeric keypad.

Possibly my keyboard is not detected correctly, if so, how do you change keyboard selection? Also, how do you get Numlock to turn on at startup ?

Thanks,
Jim

[Sissy]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

See the first post, here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=295935

It's written for KDE 3, but I find that I have the same file, with the same NumLock option, in my /etc/kde4 folder. So I suspect the same thing would work.

Unfortunately, I'm using a laptop (without a 10-digit keypad), so I can't test it myself.

[Marlin]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Look again Jim,
It's right there, in <System Settings>, <Keyboard & Mouse>, <Keyboard>

[Sissy]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Look again Jim,
It's right there, in <System Settings>, <Keyboard & Mouse>, <Keyboard>

Actually, it may not be right there, depending on how you're set up. I have only two (apparently useless) options in my System Settings:

General --> Network and Connectivity --> Sharing --> Desktop Sharing

and

Advanced --> Advanced User Settings --> KDE Resources.

In my experience, things are much harder to find in KDE 4 than they need to be...

[dibl]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Look again Jim,
It's right there, in <System Settings>, <Keyboard & Mouse>, <Keyboard>

That's the way it is on my system too -- very obvious on the first panel that opens when you click "Keyboard & Mouse".

[Jim1911]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Sissy,

Thanks, I did not find the code mentioned in that post (below), so I added it to /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc, rebooted it and it did not work.

# What to do with the Num Lock modifier for the time the greeter is running:
# "Off" - turn off
# "On" - turn on
# "Keep" - do not change the state
# Default is Keep
NumLock=On

Other respondents need to read my original post again.

[Sissy]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Jim,

That's strange. It's there in mine, and it was apparently put in automatically upon upgrade, because I haven't messed with it.

This may be a dumb question, but are you using kdm as your display manager?

If you turn numlock on manually, can you use the keypad?

[Jim1911]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Sissy,

Yes to each question, the numeric keypad works fine. As a temporary fix, I have disabled the auto-login so that I need to press Numlock in order to enter my password which has numbers. For now, that will have to do.

Ubuntu 9.04, on another partition under Gnome doesn't have this problem. I haven't installed KDE on that partition.

Jim

[dibl]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Jim, one cheap and easy experiment that might shed some light would be to boot a 9.04 Live CD, and see how your keyboard behaves in that environment. If the system setting is present and works, then you could examine the "Input Devices" stanza in the running /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and maybe those settings are what you need in your installed system. Maybe.

[Jim1911]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

dibi,

Haven't downloaded it, I used a beta alternate installation cd and later allowed the installation to upgrade to 9.04 final.

I opened the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file using "sudo dolphin" and found that it's blank which may be the source of the problem. Since the Numlock key seems to be the only problem, I'll just manually press it for now while I'll becoming more familiar with KDE4. My main OS is ubuntu 9.04 using the Gnome desktop.

Thanks,
Jim

[dibl]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

I used a beta alternate installation cd and later allowed the installation to upgrade to 9.04 final.

Heh -- that's precisely how I got my 9.04 system too. I would not be able to follow my own advice to boot a 9.04 Live CD unless I actually burned one!

But, I suspect some issue with the xorg.conf "input device" stanza, or some other configuration setting where it is not listing the correct type for your keyboard.

[Jim1911]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

dibl,

Don't know if it's related, but I have an intermittent problem at shutdown. Sometimes upon shutdown or reboot, the screen goes blank except for the mouse arrow and my only recourse is a hard shutdown. The beta didn't have this intermittent problem, although it did have the numlock problem. Maybe I do need to download a new installation CD and reload the software, although, I'll hate to have to reload custom software that I've installed.

What about deleting .kde and letting it rebuild a new one. Of course that would loss my custom settings?

Jim

[dibl]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

If you're willing to lose your custom settings, then there's nothing to lose by renaming the /home/jim/.kde folder, then rebooting.

The "freeze trying to shutdown" is a phenomenon that was reported frequently during the JJ development cycle, but I don't see it much any more. There may be threads on Ubuntu forum about it -- as I recall it is unrelated to KDM/KDE.

[Sissy]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

Jim,

If removing the .kde folder doesn't work, you might try the suggestion here (third post):

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

The bug was for Hardy, on a Toshiba laptop. Not sure what kind of machine you're using, but those odd little power options may still work. I've seen at least one other person having the shutdown issue on Jaunty too, though.

If that doesn't work, replace the "acpi=off apm=power_off" mentioned in that post with "rootflags=data=writeback".

Note that it may take one reboot to get it to recognize those changes, and another to test if it actually worked.

Let me know if that isn't clear.

[gimfred]

Re: Numlock Cannot be Set For Startup

I realise I'm posting to an old thread, but Jim's error finally got to me.

9.04, no <System Settings>, <Keyboard & Mouse>, <Keyboard>

No idea why Jim and I are missing this 'feature'; I installed fresh from a 9.04 live-cd obtained in May.