Numlock

Jim Cornette redhat-jc at insight.rr.com
Wed Sep 17 02:59:38 UTC 2003


Paul Morgan wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-09-16 at 17:24, Jim Cornette wrote:
> 
>>>The kernel is hard coded to disable numlock on startup.  Years
>>>back when this annoyed me as I wanted numlock to default to the
>>>BIOS defined setting as well, I was told on the linux-kernel
>>>mailing list that the kernel defaulted to disabling numlock so
>>>that Linus' laptop came up ready to type, rather than having 
>>>numlock enabled and having to turn it off in order to type.
>>
>>Since laptops are becoming more common, I think that numlocks off is the 
>>best default setting. Also, for a left-handed person, as myself, the 
>>numbers pad is not frequently used. I like the setting off.
>>
>>If you are doing a lot of working with numbers, it is not too dificult 
>>to hit the numlock key. For a laptop user, with combo keys, they would 
>>be typing things like 150 for jim and 35n4x for linux. It is more sane 
>>to keep the option set to off.
>>
>>Jim (n6t 150)
> 
> 
> My 2 cents:
> 
> Your point about the laptop is a good argument against defaulting
> numlock to the "on" position. Nevertheless, that is still preventing the
> user/owner of the computer from making the determination. 
> 
> The best method is to have a config file setting, such as
> numlock=on|off|bios IMHO.
> 
> Where could this setting be located? 
> 
> inittab? this might necessitate additional syntax of some sort to
> distinguish between setting the led's in the various run-levels &/or
> VC's.
> 
> rc.local script? 
> 
> XF86Config? initial setting would apply to all users until overridden by
> ~/.dmrc 
> 
> .dmrc? 
> 
> some combination/hierarchy?
> 
> xset is not appropriate for this, I believe, because of the variation in
> how the led's are interpreted from one machine to another. On my Sony
> Z1A laptop, for instance, the only led that can be controlled by xset is
> the scroll-lock (xset led 3). The other values 1-32 have no discernible
> effect:
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> i=1
> while [ $i -lt  33 ]
> do
>   echo "Trying LED $i"
>   xset led $i
>   sleep 2
>   xset -led $i
>   i=$(( $i+1 ))
> 
> -paul
> 

Maybe adding this function into the graphical boot loader or into one of 
the scripts for each individual user. This choice probably ought to be 
versatile enough to fit for all system users preferences.

rc.local is a pretty good location but would effect all users.

If we want another redhat-config-whatever, I think that 
redhat-config-keyboard would be a good tool to start working on. This 
might be good for multi-language and multi-keyboard layout 
configuration, as well as default numlocks, caplocks, etc settings.

Any volunteers?

Jim
-- 
A bachelor is a selfish, undeserving guy who has cheated some woman out
of a divorce.
		-- Don Quinn





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