Numlock never enables

[L_V]

"Lock-keys-applet is a gnome2 applet, that shows the status of the CAPS-, NUM- and SCROLL-Lock keys of your keyboard."

I use KDE4 which also do not need numlockx package.
I think the less packages try to control or modify the LEDs, the less trouble you get.
In 2010, a fully standard keyboard should work out of the box.

[L_V]

Amazing the number of problems recently reported about this erratic Numlock/LED, impossible to lock on at X session start, although I never had had any problem with it before for years with KDE3/4.
When the numlock+LED is still active in tty mode, the LED immediately switches off as soon as xinit starts.
Three days were not enough to find a workaround (... which is not obsolete, but compatible with this new bug)

It seems that x11-xkb-utils package is likely the root of the problem:

xkbutils contains a number of client-side utilities for XKB, the X11 keyboard extension.
setxkbmap is a tool to query and change the current XKB map.
xkbbell generates a bell event through the keyboard.
xkbcomp is a tool to compile XKB definitions into map files the server can use.
xkbevd is an experimental tool to listen for certain XKB events and execute defined triggers when actions occur.
xkbprint is a tool to generate an image with the physical representation of the keyboard as XKB sees it.
xkbvleds shows the changing status of keyboard LEDs.
xkbwatch shows the changing status of modifiers and LEDs.

When looking at the recent change-logs, the good news is that Debian seems responsible of this package.
We can then expect a serious solution soon.


EDIT:
Confirmation
Numlock works perfectly with x11-xkb-utils 7.4+1 (=Lenny)
Numlock is buggy with 7.5+5

[handheldCar]

edit - here's the wrong way to downgrade a package. See my other post below.
Here's what I did to downgrade that package (using the US mirror & 32-bit package and for aptitude users):

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wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/x11-xkb-utils/x11-xkb-utils_7.4+1_i386.deb && dpkg -i x11-xkb-utils_7.4+1_i386.deb && aptitude hold x11-xkb-utils

Criticisms are welcome. After a month or two of waiting for someone else to fix it, Num Lock automatically turned on after a reboot. Only drawback is my desktop environment keeps telling me I have one update.

[L_V]

Only drawback is my desktop environment keeps telling me I have one update.

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aptitude hold x11-xkb-utils

BTW, don't know when this bug will be considered in Squeeze & SID.

[handheldCar]

pin it higher than 1000 to downgrade it.

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man apt_preferences

in /etc/apt/preferences:

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Package: x11-xkb-utils
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 1001

add a couple stable repositories for the pin to work, but I still get an upgrade message, this time for two. The extra one is a mystery.

[L_V]

With "hold" status, "aptitude safe-upgrade" will not upgrade x11-xkb-utils.

[renatov]

My Squeeze is up to date and the numlock problem persists... will Squeeze become stable with this problem unsolved?

[L_V]

will Squeeze become stable with this problem unsolved?

Yes. It's too late for bug correction.

[renatov]

will Squeeze become stable with this problem unsolved?

Yes. It's too late for bug correction.

Why? I thought that Squeeze wasn't stable yet because he needed to receive some more bug corrections.

[handheldCar]

Finally got the right one installed:

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aptitude install x11-xkb-utils/oldstable

(had pinned it to oldstable, pinned oldstable w/ 300 priority, stable w/ 200, etc)

[handheldCar]

can't tell if this fixes anything:

Debian Changelog x11-xkb-utils (7.6+1)
2011
x11-xkb-utils (7.6+1) experimental; urgency=low
[ Robert Hooker ]
* New upstream releases:
- setxkbmap 1.2.0
- xkbcomp 1.2.0
- xkbevd 1.1.1
- xkbutils 1.0.3
* Add xutils-dev to build deps.

[ Cyril Brulebois ]
* New upstream releases:
- xkbevd 1.1.2
- xkbprint 1.0.3
* Update debian/copyright from xkbutils upstream COPYING.
* Add x11proto-core-dev build-dep for xkbutils.

-- Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:52:46 +0100

changelog

[L_V]

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x11-xkb-utils   7.6+2 

http://packages.debian.org/sid/x11-xkb-utils
Fixed for me.

[ComputerBob]

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x11-xkb-utils   7.6+2 

http://packages.debian.org/sid/x11-xkb-utils
Fixed for me.

Same here!

Running Debian Wheezy Xfce with numlockx to enable my NumLock key on session start, the new update to x11-xkb-utils causes my NumLock LED to also be "on" the way it should be, when my desktop appears.

[handheldCar]

I had somehow unsubscribed from this thread, but thanks for the updates. Because of them, I installed the unstable version of this package and sent an e-mail to the bug report. I have too many things running to restart X and test it, but I hope Num Lock will automatically enable itself on my next X session.

PS I'm happy to report a confirmation; it worked for me as well.

[ComputerBob]

I think one way is to install numlockx and set it to autostart in the Xfce session. I heard it works but the Num Lock led doesn't light up.

I'm betting that you learned both of those things right here in this thread -- which also contains the solution to the problem.

[Lou]

My neighbor wants Squeeze installed, can somebody using Stable tell me if the numpad bug has been fixed? Thank you.

[Lou]

I gave up, installed Wheezy; everything is hunkydorry.

[epp]

The numlock issue has been around for at least the past few years. No idea why it is taking so long to fix. I observed this on three different Linux distributions, including Debian, so I suspect the problem is "downstream" and not specific to any one distribution.

[renatov]

My neighbor wants Squeeze installed, can somebody using Stable tell me if the numpad bug has been fixed? Thank you.

It is not fixed till now.

[hhh]

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x11-xkb-utils   7.6+2 

http://packages.debian.org/sid/x11-xkb-utils
Fixed for me.

I'm using squeeze and this did NOT work for me, even after also install the sid numlockx package.