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Linux question-numlock (lemmy.zip)
submitted 6 hours ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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I switched to Linux a during the year of the Linux desktop (tm) and it's been great but I have one small issue maybe someone knows how to fix.

I have tried 4 different distros so far (currently using bazzite and kachy on two different machines) and they all do this: every time the computer restarts, numlock turns off by default. I use keyboards with a numpad and the numpads do nothing it seems unless I hit numlock first. This is compared to every windows or apple machine used previously where numlock is pressed once after buying the computer then never needs to be again.

Is this the most minor inconvenience ever? Quite possibly. But I still find myself trying to enter numbers often and being frustrated I don't notice right away. Probably doesn't help I have a bunch of them in my unlock password after every restart.

Tl:dr; how to get numlock to activate on startup

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[–] 13 points 6 hours ago (1 child)

Most DEs have their own specific way to do this, so the exact solution will vary.

That said, if you're looking for a general solution, there's good odds your computer has a BIOS setting that can be used to set the initial numlock state, and that will work no matter what DE you use. If that's an option for you, that would be my first choice.

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    • [–] 11 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

    Try reading this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Activating_numlock_on_bootup

    Look at the relevant section depending on your desktop environment

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago (1 child)

    How do I find out what desktop environment?

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  • [–] 2 points 4 hours ago*

    A simple way, you can take a look

    echo "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP"

    in the terminal.

    Let's do it faster, to check what is running inside the seat.

    Here is a one-liner, just run it in your terminal:

    desktop="${XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP:-${XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP:-}}"; session_type="${XDG_SESSION_TYPE:-}"; info="" session=""; if command -v loginctl >/dev/null 2>&1; then session="${XDG_SESSION_ID:-self}"; info=$(loginctl show-session "$session" -p Desktop -p Type 2>/dev/null) || info=""; if [[ -z "$desktop" ]]; then desktop=$(sed -n 's/^Desktop=//p' <<< "$info"); fi; if [[ -z "$session_type" ]]; then session_type=$(sed -n 's/^Type=//p' <<< "$info"); fi; fi; printf 'DE=%s\n' "${desktop:-unknown}"; printf 'TYPE=%s\n' "${session_type:-unknown}"

    It will show something like

    DE=KDE
TYPE=wayland
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    • [–] 9 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

    https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/numlock-at-start/4666/2

    This is what I could find for Bazzite, lmk if it works.

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    • [–] 6 points 5 hours ago

    Settings> keyboard> num lock status

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    [–] 3 points 1 hour ago

    Isn’t this a bios setting? I always did it that way, even on windows machines.

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    [–] -2 points 3 hours ago

    The trick is to get a keyboard that doesn't have a numpad, and then you don't need to worry about it anymore.

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