Laptop's keyboard is unusable: NumLock is always ON.

Using applications, configuring, problems
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zeiz
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed 03 Oct 2012, 21:05

Laptop's keyboard is unusable: NumLock is always ON.

#1 Post by zeiz »

I finally got Classic Puppy (2.14xTop10) running fine in ext2 partition on my ThinkPad 560E in dual boot with win98.
I still need some adjusting: no internet connection (though eth0 is up), using swap, some other minor things... but I got very weird and very serious problem I've never heard about: my keyboard is not functioning properly. Trying to narrow the issue I found that the problem is NumLock which always turns ON when X is running so I have numbers instead of letters using certain buttons. Pressing Shift-NumLk does nothing.
I tried to find a solution online but found only a couple and those don't work on my system.
The solution is likely connected with X configuring since the problem exists only when X is running. So it's software related. I tried to find file "numlock", program "numlockx" but nothing like that exists in Puppy.
I believe many people are running Puppy on laptops and I couldn't find a solution. This could mean that I'm missing something very obvious but I cannot guess what exactly.
How to permanently disable (always OFF) NumLock on my system?

starhawk
Posts: 4906
Joined: Mon 22 Nov 2010, 06:04
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...

#2 Post by starhawk »

Apologies for being away from Puppy at the moment.

Somewhere in the Menu there is a "Personalize Settings" entry. It may also be called "First Boot Wizard" or "Firstrun". Run it. You'll see a little "Welcome to Puppy" splash screen and then some useful configuration options should pop up.

Look for the drop-down menu for keyboard layout or somesuch (it's usually on the left side with the timezone and language settings), and you will find the NumLock checkbox directly underneath. Uncheck that box, and OK out of the wizard, and you should be good to go.

Let us know how it goes!

zeiz
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed 03 Oct 2012, 21:05

#3 Post by zeiz »

Thanks a lot. Actually I didn't find the Personalize settings and the checkbox but I started over and found the following:
Menu>Setup>Setup Wizards>Mouse/Keyboard Wizard>Key4Button>OK>Options(tab)>Use keyboard LED to show alternative group.
There is a variable grp_led:num and I changed it to grp_led_scroll just to try. After activating I tried to press Shift-NumLck again but led was still on. However after X restarting the led was off and the keyboard typed properly!
Perhaps it's not the right way to do that but it works so far.
Many thanks again!

starhawk
Posts: 4906
Joined: Mon 22 Nov 2010, 06:04
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...

#4 Post by starhawk »

Welcome. Glad to be of assistance :D

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maik.murks
Posts: 327
Joined: Mon 28 Mar 2011, 06:19
Location: at home, at work or on holidays

Re: Laptop's keyboard is unusable: NumLock is always ON.

#5 Post by maik.murks »

zeiz wrote:Pressing Shift-NumLk does nothing.
You are pretty well right - pressing <shift><numlock> does usually nothing.
If you want to manually switch the state of numlock then <fn><numlock> does usually the trick.
Hope that helps.

Cheers :wink:

Maik.Murks

zeiz
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed 03 Oct 2012, 21:05

#6 Post by zeiz »

Thanks. Of course I tried fn-NumLck too and many other combinations and nothing changed.
I feel it's a kind of magic that finally I got numlock off, I don't realize why it works but as long as it works I don't want to press anything anymore. :lol:

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tallboy
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Joined: Tue 21 Sep 2010, 21:56
Location: Drøbak, Norway

#7 Post by tallboy »

Shift-NumLock actually activates Mouse_Keys, a builtin function in X that let the keys in the numeric keypad move the cursor and act as a mouse.

tallboy
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

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