this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
26 points (100.0% liked)

linux4noobs

3255 readers
1 users here now

linux4noobs


Noob Friendly, Expert Enabling

Whether you're a seasoned pro or the noobiest of noobs, you've found the right place for Linux support and information. With a dedication to supporting free and open source software, this community aims to ensure Linux fits your needs and works for you. From troubleshooting to tutorials, practical tips, news and more, all aspects of Linux are warmly welcomed. Join a community of like-minded enthusiasts and professionals driving Linux's ongoing evolution.


Seeking Support?

Community Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

So, what's the deal with NumLock? I have it tuned on in the BIOS and in KDE settings, yet every time I boot up my PC or open the terminal as super user, it is turned off. Any way to deal with this? That happened on Bazzite, Fedora and now Cachy. I have a 100% keyboard and I want to use all 100% of it.

top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Vorpal@programming.dev 16 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I don't know the answer (I don't care about numlock myself), but the arch wiki has an article on this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Activating_numlock_on_bootup

Perhaps that will be useful to you. In general checking the arch wiki is a good idea for any Linux issues, even if you don't run arch, many things still apply to other distros and the articles are of very high quality.

In this case, "Early bootup (mkinitcpio)" would likely not apply to most other distros that aren't based on Arch, but the rest looks to apply widly.

It is worth noting that in the KDE section it mentions the need to apply two settings, perhaps that could be it?

[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 months ago

As a long time Slackware user, I second this opinion. The Arch wiki is gold for all Linux users.

[–] some_random_nick@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Tnx, I'll give it a read.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Go to System Settings > Input & Output > Keyboard, in the Hardware tab, in the NumLock on Plasma Startup section, choose the desired NumLock behavior.

For this to work, make sure that System Settings > System > Session > Background Services > Keyboard Daemon is enabled.

Source

[–] some_random_nick@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Yeah, those settings were on. I'll read up on the article linked above and see if I can make it work.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Then refer to the source for other ways to go about it.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

No answer on Bazzite source I could find - just says check bios. That's why I'm here too, and tried something from Arch.

[–] thedaemon@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Because for some reason Linux developers do not use the number pad. This is the worst default.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev -2 points 3 months ago

I use the NumPad.
Without NumLock

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I've been wondering about this. I've only had this issue with Fedora based distros, but not Ubuntu or Debian based ones. It's extremely annoying, and the system settings having it on and same with bios don't do anything. Num Lock is on by default for Mint for example - same system. Even freaking windows.

[–] some_random_nick@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

These are strange times for the NumLock club. Strange times...