How to enable NumLock Key to be ON when Linux Boots

If you’ve tried Linux before, chances are you found this frustrating. The NumLock key on your keyboard is by default OFF when Linux boots. There’s a way to enable NumLock key stay in the ON state when Linux starts up.

Here’s how to do it if you’re in Ubuntu:

Using the shell, install NumLockX by typing this command

$ sudo apt-get install numlockx

Otherwise you can download the tarball from here, compile and install it by executing the following set of commands from the directory where the tarball was extracted:

./configure
make
make install
make xsetup
make xinitrc

Reboot, you should see that the NumLock key is on by default.

Published by

Shankar Ganesh

A 16 year old Techie, High School Student, Blogger and Part Time Freelance Writer from India. He writes about computers and software at Killer Tech Tips

  • Not used to Linux much. :-)

  • Nice tips. I have not used linux yet, But this morning I resd in another blog about the coolest think that we can get from linux but not from Windows or Mac…So, now I start thinking to use Linux. Anyway, thanks for the tips.