Enabling Numeric Keypad

gnomekdekeyboardtty

I have trouble with the numeric keypad (NumLock keys) being unusable while typing.

While I don't think it's GUI specific, this happens both in Gnome and KDE. Sometimes it works in TTY, other times it fails. If I press the NumLock key nothing happens, and the response is the same.

I cannot use any of the keys except Ins, which repeats text after Backspace is used.

EDIT:

xev output, on NumLock press/release

KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x2800001,
    root 0x101, subw 0x0, time 389867, (311,217), root:(319,313),
    state 0x0, keycode 77 (keysym 0xff7f, Num_Lock), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x2800001,
    root 0x101, subw 0x0, time 389867, (311,217), root:(319,313),
    state 0x10, keycode 77 (keysym 0xff7f, Num_Lock), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

Best Answer

This command worked for me on Linux Mint and Ubuntu using XFCE with a CMStorm keyboard.

setxkbmap -option keypad:pointerkeys

setxkbmap - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension

For some reason, activating numlock will make the keys move my mouse and deactivating numlock will set the keys to the correct characters. I suppose this is good because now I don't have to enable numlock and I can save a very small amount of electricity.

Source: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=216&t=106658

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