Thursday, 31 December 2009
Naughty [NumLock] key on Thinkpad R50e running Ubuntu
It's been a constant pain in the proverbial to use this Thinkpad R50e, running Ubuntu 9.04, with and without an external keyboard.
It spends much of its life fixed to a desk with an external USB keyboard, connected via a four port USB hub/speaker combination. In this manner, the [NumLock] key needs to be pressed ( on the external keyboard ) for the numeric keys to be usable.
However, when the hub etc. is unplugged e.g. when the laptop goes on the road, the [NumLock] light stays illuminated, meaning that the numeric keys on the Thinkpad's own keypad become activated, preventing half the keyboard from being used for its proper purpose e.g. the U key becomes a 4, the K key becomes a 2 etc. etc. etc.
The problem is that it's not easy to disable [NumLock] from within the Gnome X11 environment - switching to another virtual terminal using [Ctrl][Alt][F1] etc. sometimes works, but that's not a particularly elegant solution.
There are probably better ways, but a Google search found me NumlockX
which does the job far more elegantly.
I installed it as follows: -
sudo apt-get install numlockx
It has three parameters, easily displayed using the command numlockx -? which are: -
on - turns NumLock on in X ( default )
off - turns NumLock off in X
toggle - toggles the NumLock on and off in X
However, I didn't want to have to open a shell merely to do this, so I wrote a simple script: -
#!/bin/bash
numlockx off
saved as numlock.sh which, having set as executable ( chmod +x ) in my user's home directory, I then created a desktop shortcut ( via a Custom Application Launcher ) to it.
I placed this shortcut on the bottom panel, alongside Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, Skype etc. and now have a simple way of toggling the NumLock off.
If I wanted to, I could have amended the script to read: -
#!/bin/bash
numlockx toggle
to that I could change the state on AND off, at the click of a mouse button.
Simple ....
It spends much of its life fixed to a desk with an external USB keyboard, connected via a four port USB hub/speaker combination. In this manner, the [NumLock] key needs to be pressed ( on the external keyboard ) for the numeric keys to be usable.
However, when the hub etc. is unplugged e.g. when the laptop goes on the road, the [NumLock] light stays illuminated, meaning that the numeric keys on the Thinkpad's own keypad become activated, preventing half the keyboard from being used for its proper purpose e.g. the U key becomes a 4, the K key becomes a 2 etc. etc. etc.
The problem is that it's not easy to disable [NumLock] from within the Gnome X11 environment - switching to another virtual terminal using [Ctrl][Alt][F1] etc. sometimes works, but that's not a particularly elegant solution.
There are probably better ways, but a Google search found me NumlockX
which does the job far more elegantly.
I installed it as follows: -
sudo apt-get install numlockx
It has three parameters, easily displayed using the command numlockx -? which are: -
on - turns NumLock on in X ( default )
off - turns NumLock off in X
toggle - toggles the NumLock on and off in X
However, I didn't want to have to open a shell merely to do this, so I wrote a simple script: -
#!/bin/bash
numlockx off
saved as numlock.sh which, having set as executable ( chmod +x ) in my user's home directory, I then created a desktop shortcut ( via a Custom Application Launcher ) to it.
I placed this shortcut on the bottom panel, alongside Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, Skype etc. and now have a simple way of toggling the NumLock off.
If I wanted to, I could have amended the script to read: -
#!/bin/bash
numlockx toggle
to that I could change the state on AND off, at the click of a mouse button.
Simple ....
# posted by Dave Hay : 14:28
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