Comment 51 for bug 218202

Ubuntu Lucid (and Karmic, too, if I remember correctly) didn't have this problem here, but some earlier release did.

The bug has returned in Maverick.

I want NumLock ON when the system prompts me for the username and the password, so I install the numlockx package and add the following lines to the "/etc/gdm/Init/Default" file (just above the "exit 0" line):

if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then
   /usr/bin/numlockx on
fi

Under Maverick, NumLock will be turned on, but the NumLock LED will not.

Strange thing is, GNOME (i.e., the session that gets started for me when I log in) does appear to understand how to turn BOTH the NumLock state AND the NumLock LED on. The first time I logged in to GNOME, I pressed the NumLock key to activate the NumLock state (as well as the LED), and I left it that way. Ever since, whenever I log in, GNOME will restore the NumLock state AND turn on the LED for me.

Thus: GNOME KNOWS how to make sure that BOTH the NumLock state AND the NumLock LED are turned ON. Is there anyone here who could tell me what exactly GNOME does to turn on the LED, in addition to the NumLock state? Would it be doable to modify the numlockx utility to do the same? I wouldn't mind to try and do this myself, if only I knew where to start.