[luau] Num Lock

Nakashima pnakashi at k12.hi.us
Wed Oct 29 15:59:01 PST 2003


I got this off the K12OSN list. I guess it'll work with K12LTSP since it
came from their list.

Can anyone comment on this solution? or are Tom's solutions better?

--

How to get the NumLock to stay on
Written by "gentgeen" and verified by Loren (thanks ;-} )
contact at gentgeen at NOSPAM.linuxmail.org (just remove the NOSPAM).

Introduction

If you are like me, you use the number pad a lot. I found it very
frustrating that every time I started my Linux box I would have to turn
the NumLock on, then when I started X, I would have to turn it on again.
And at least for my system, setting the NumLock on in the BIOS did not do
the trick. This NHF will describe how to have the NumLock's on as the
default setting in the console, and how to keep it on when you boot into
X.

In Console mode

You will first have to edit your /etc/rc.d/rc.local (or whatever your
local boot script is), so you will need root privileges. You will also
need the setleds program. (I think it is pretty standard with all
distributions.)

To find out if you have the setleds program, I would type setle at the
console, then press TAB. This should finish the command for you. If
nothing happens, press TAB twice, you may then get a list of all programs
on your computer that start with setle. If you see setleds in the list,
then your ready to go. If you still do not see setleds, then you need to
install it.

Getting and Installing setleds

If you do have setleds, then you can skip this section, otherwise,
continue. setleds is part of a larger package called "console-tools".
Before you download, check your CDs, you probably already have it. If it
is not part of your distribution, then go to http://lct.sourceforge.net
and download a package. If you do not know how to install your package,
check your documentation, or check out Josh's Linux Guide at
http://jgo.local.net/LinuxGuide/ (NOTE: if you are fairly new to Linux,
you may want to check out Josh's work, it has helped me a great deal.)

Editing the boot script

Now that you have setleds, you are ready to edit the rc.local file. You
will have to be logged in as root, or at least use the su command. At the
console, type pico /etc/rc.d/rc.local. You can replace pico with your
favorite editor (like vi, elvis, joe, vim, emacs), if you have never used
any of these, I would suggest pico since it has a menu at the bottom of
the screen. Go to the end of the file and add:


        for t in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
        do
           setleds -D +num < /dev/tty$t > /dev/null
        done


Now whenever you are in the console, Numlocks default will be on. That is,
you have to press the NumLock key if you want to turn it off.
Unfortunately, this does not carry over to the X server (at least in my X
server). Read the next section for how to keep NumLocks on when the X
server boots up.

In your X server

You would think that if you set the default setting to on in the console,
that it would carry over to you X server, but NO. That would not be that
easy. (Hopefully they will fix this in future versions) As of now the only
way I know how to do this is with the help of a little program called
numlockx. You can find numlockx at
http://dforce.sh.cvut.cz/~seli/en/numlockx/ or I have also placed a copy
at my website http://ourworld.cs.com/kvsmaster/files/numlockx-1.0.tar.gz.

Installing numlockx

If you have never installed from source, don't worry this one is simple.
If you have installed from source before, then you can skip this section.

1.      Change to the directory where you saved the file, and extract the
archive by typing:
tar -zxvf numlockx-1.0.tar.gz
2.      Change into the new directory by typing:
cd numlockx-1.0
3.      Install the program. I know there are different ways to do this,
but to keep it simple, I use the following method:
1.      su to root if you are not already logged in as root.
2.      Type ./configure && make && make install
You will see a lot of text fly by, but as long as you do not see the word
ERROR, your ok.


4.      I usually check to see if things went O.K. by logging out as root
(if you used su then just type exit), then type numloc and press TAB, if
the command is completed, your OK.


Now that you have numlockx installed, you will have to include it into
your X server start-up file. This should be a hidden file named .xinitrc
in your HOME directory. You can check by doing a ls -a at your HOME
directory. If you do not have one, then you can just create one.

If you have a .xinitrc file

If you already have one, then use pico (or what ever text editor from
above), and just add the line numlockx on & somewhere before the line that
calls your windows manager (probably the last line calls your windows
manager).

If you do not have a .xinitrc file

User your favorite editor and create a file. I would do it like this:

1.      At your home directory type pico .xinitrc
2.      Copy to following into your file:


        # This is my X server start up file

        # Add any programs you want to have running when X starts here
        # Make sure they all end with a &

        numlockx on &

        # Now add your windows manager here.
        # I have included some examples, just remove the # in the
beginning for yours

        # exec gnome-session
        # exec startkde
        # exec blackbox



3.      Save the file, and your ready to go.

Now, every time you start Linux or start your X server, your NumLock will
already be on.

If you have any comments, corrections, or questions, please feel free to
contact me at gentgeen at NOSPAM.linuxmail.org (Just remove the NOSPAM.)




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