Deployment: How to activate the Numlock permanently? CLI or Script

[localhorst]

Hi,
I am deploying Leap15.3 with KDE in my organization.

I need to activate the Numlock on every boot via CLI/Script. So that it is already on (numerical input instead navigation) after the boot.
This is the way to do it via GUI:

Settings / Input Devices/ Keyboard / Numlock at Plasma Start / The Radio BTNs 

This Settings corespondents to the file:

~/.config/kcminputrc

There is a Entry that saves the settings:

NumLock=0

0 is Enabled at boot
1 ist Disabled at boot
2 is don’t care

Unfortunately this modified file will not work after a reboot to set the Numlock on.

Any ideas to trigger this settings (like the GUI) via CLI?

Greetings and thanks,
Hendrik

[hcvv]

You want to do this on boot. But you are looking at a solution in the KDE desktop. Thus you are looking in the wrong direction.

Sorry that I can not tell you how to set Numlock on boot, but what you are trying (setting something for a (each?) user that can/will/may login in the KDE desktop is IMHO not the way to a solution.

[nrickert]

@localhorst

I need to activate the Numlock on every boot via CLI/Script. So that it is already on (numerical input instead navigation) after the boot.

I gave up on getting numlock to work at boot.

It is easier and more useful to have it configured for when you login to KDE.

System Settings –> Input Devices

and the setting is right there (“Numlock on Plasma Startup”).

[Sauerland]

If using sddm, you can add:

cat /etc/sddm.conf.d/00-general.conf 
[XDisplay]
MinimumVT=7
# boo#1089932
EnableHiDPI=true

[General]
HaltCommand=
Numlock=on
RebootCommand=

[Users]
# boo#979775
ReuseSession=true
MaximumUid=65000
MinimumUid=1000

[larryr]

cli

numlockx on

[hcvv]

@larryr

cli

numlockx on

I experimented a bit.

As user, logged in in the GUI, it “works”

But as root from the console there is the message “cannot open display”. Which confirms that the x in numlockx refers to the X environment.
And as you have no X environment during boot, I doubt this will help the OP in is queste to have it switched on during boot.

[dcurtisfra]

@localhorst

I need to activate the Numlock on every boot via CLI/Script.

Following the suggestion of larryr, the package “numlockx” is suggested by “patterns-base-x11_enhanced” – meaning that most systems should have this KDE CLI tool available –

 > numlockx -h
NumLockX 1.2
(C) 2000-2001 Lubos Lunak <l.lunak@kde.org>
(C) 2001      Oswald Buddenhagen <ossi@kde.org>

Usage : numlockx [on|off]
on     - turns NumLock on in X ( default )
off    - turns NumLock off in X
toggle - toggles the NumLock on and off in X

 >

[HR][/HR]Suggestion for an “all users” deployment –

1. Drop an executable script with a “.sh
   ” extension containing “/usr/bin/numlockx on” into ‘/home’. 1. In each user’s ‘~/.config/plasma-workspace/env
   ’ directory create a symbolic link to the “all users” executable ‘.sh’ script …

[john_hudson]

Have you checked the BIOS? Most of the devices I have bought have a default setting for NumLock, which may be On or Off. I have generally used KDE as described above if I wanted to change the default setting but there may be a BIOS setting or a BIOS option; for example, on my 2007 Dell notebook, holding down Fn during boot turns NumLock on (the default being Off).

[Atronach]

NumLock on openSUSE should be done via YaST. It applies to both KDE and virtual console. It also survives restart.
*Yast2 -> Sysconfig Editor -> Hardware -> Keyboard -> KBD_NUMLOCK:yes

*CLI approach: /etc/sysconfig/keyboard: KBD_NUMLOCK=“yes”

[Atronach]

@Atronach

NumLock on openSUSE should be done via YaST. It applies to both KDE and virtual console. It also survives restart.
*Yast2 -> Sysconfig Editor -> Hardware -> Keyboard -> KBD_NUMLOCK:yes

*CLI approach: /etc/sysconfig/keyboard: KBD_NUMLOCK=“yes”

CLI via YaST: # sudo yast sysconfig set KBD_NUMLOCK=yes

[mrmazda]

Mine have all been like what follows since somewhere around SuSE 8.0, and that it works is one of the reasons why I chose to stay with SuSE after first trying SuSE:

# diff -u /etc/sysconfig/keyboard01 /etc/sysconfig/keyboard
...
 ## Type:        list(bios,yes,no)
 ## Default:     bios
 #
 # NumLock on? ("yes" or "no" or empty or "bios" for BIOS setting)
 # This setting may interfere with GNOME /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/remember_numlock_state GConf key.
-KBD_NUMLOCK="bios"
+KBD_NUMLOCK="yes"
...
# grep NUM /etc/sysconfig/keyboard
KBD_NUMLOCK="yes"

Keyboard01 is the saved original file provided at installation. In addition, in each DE and DM I use and that has config options for NUM state, I find it and set keyboard state to on. For KDE Plasma, this is kept in ~/.config/kcminputrc:

...
[Keyboard]
...
NumLock=0
...

IMO it’s rude and absurd that the kernel doesn’t apply the NUM state from the BIOS by default instead of flipping it off every chance it gets.

[localhorst]

@hcvv

You want to do this on boot. But you are looking at a solution in the KDE desktop. Thus you are looking in the wrong direction.

Sorry that I can not tell you how to set Numlock on boot, but what you are trying (setting something for a (each?) user that can/will/may login in the KDE desktop is IMHO not the way to a solution.

Sorry, I was not very specific. There is only one KDE user active on every PC, so a user-specific setting is not required.

This does the trick for me:

CLI approach: **/etc/sysconfig/keyboard:** *KBD_NUMLOCK="yes"*

Thanks for all your time and knowledge.

Greetings from Germany,
Hendrik

[dcurtisfra]

@localhorst

There is only one KDE user active on every PC, so a user-specific setting is not required.

Hmm – on this machine –

• /etc/sysconfig/keyboard
  – KBD_NUMLOCK=“bios”

But, I must admit that, I also use –

 > cat /etc/sddm.conf.d/General.conf 
[General]
Numlock=on
 > 

• because, ‘/usr/lib/sddm/sddm.conf.d/00-general.conf
  ’ doesn’t explicitly do it …