Fixing the borked numeric keypad in Ubuntu Hardy
Posted by Peng on 17 March 2008
I was finally able to do some hunting around Launchpad to find out why the numeric keypad on my keyboard “broke” once I got Ubuntu Hardy installed, and I was able to find a workaround for it. It’s also not a Hardy bug after all but a GNOME bug, and I’ve got both a workaround and bug links for all that need it.
First off, there’s an easy workaround for it. Go into the Keyboard Preferences (System >Preferences > Keyboard) and go to the Mouse Keys tab. Simply uncheck the box for Allow to control the pointer using the keyboard. (I know the grammar sucks on that sentence. I need to find a bug for that as well.) That will let users of Ubuntu Hardy, and other distros that use GNOME 2.22, to regain the use of their numeric keypad.
There are two bugs for this on file. for Ubuntu Launchpad has bug #197589: Numeric keypad no longer works after upgrade. That bug actually pointed me to the GNOME bug on Bugzilla, #521197 – Numeric keypad no longer works after upgrade. With any luck we’ll have this fixed for the next milestone for Hardy.
h3ine said
Hey, thanks for this hint.
I was just getting mad of this.
You saved my live
Peng said
Glad I could help.
I thought I’d seen that the bug had been fixed but I guess it hasn’t. Damn.
Luis said
Yup, that solved the problem. Gracias
Grant said
Just upgraded from 7.10 to 8.04, and numeric pad stopped working. Did a Google search, and found your post. Awesome, worked perfectly. Thanks!
bc90021 said
Just came across this having googled… you should be getting some nice hits because of them. You might want to buy some adwords!
Patrick said
Thanks a lot, Nanci. Worked perfectly.
Simon said
Just like Grant, after a Google Search, i found your post and it work perfectly. Thanks.
jose lizana said
gracias, excelente
Moc said
This fix works but it’s not always persistant. I’ve rebooted back to the setting being re-enabled on its own. Not every time though.
Peng said
That’s odd. I’ve never lost my NumLock setting since I applied the fix I stated. Not sure why your setting it would have been lost.
Kenniej said
Just upgraded to 8.04 & the keypad stopped working here as well
So Google brought me here for a fix , Thnx dude !
peace
guille said
Thanks solve my problem too!.
TC said
fantastic, worked like a charm!
icewater said
THANKS!
Henrik said
Thanks alot!
I found this site by googling | ubuntu numerical keyboard stopped working
Excramasax said
Thanks! Gonna try it as soon as I arrive home!
Aaron said
Thanks for the fix, mate. Works perfectly. I wondered what had gone wrong, thought it may have been something I had done
THanks again.
Aaron
Travis said
Wow, fixed my problem as well. Thanks for the tip.
meeko said
You rock!!! Thanks. Balancing a checkbook without those keys was a pain in the ***
imadoofus123 said
Thank you for reminding me of this, but now that I know what it is I feel kind of stupid because I had known about this before but didn’t think about it. you can also push shift numberlock to toggle it, at least on my setup.
Peng said
Actually that didn’t work so well in my experience. Glad it works for others.
Per Andersen said
Hey Peng
Thanks a lot. I was just beginning to think about Windows XP again. It was a big step for me switching to Linux……..
Peng said
Glad I was able to help. I’m surprised they shipped hardy with that little glitch in there.
Ubulindy said
My problem just recently occured, and I didnt exactly know how it even happened. I thjought maybe toggling back and forth with Compiz settings. Anyways, num pad is working again, that box in keyboard settings was already unchecked. I resolved the issue by Shift + 7 on the num pad.
john said
sweet! this has bugged me since the upgrade on release day. i finally got around to googling the problem and your post came up and fixed the problem for me!
favertama said
thank you very very very very much…
Pavel said
cool– i would not find it myself… I tryed stop gdm to go in linux command line only to verify numlock there–it worked–so i figured out it is problem inside qui configs…
Thanks for topic
Artur said
Worked perfectly
Thanks a lot
I started to learn how to live without numeric keypad
David said
/*-789+456+123
0.
Thank you to for the allow setting into number keypad. This user much under allow appreciate needful this day.
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
Sigmund Baginov said
Thank you so much! Essential, easy… Sherlock Holmes!
Xavier said
Yay that helped!
Thanks alot, I was thinking it was due to my cordless keyboard, and almost breaked it untill I saw that the keys worked in the login screen but not after it…
Thanks!
sm00thnicky said
Weirdly, this only became a problem on one of my three Hardy installs. One is a laptop so I won’t count that, but on two desktops with identical keyboards (both from the same case even) I only list the keypad on one of them.
This fixed it though! Thanks!
adam said
That did it! Thanks!
Andy Watts said
Thanks!
Vishal said
i don’t know why but for me the reverse is working..if i uncheck then i have to give acpi=off while booting and if i check then keypad and mouse works fine
Jande Jicga said
HVALA VELIKO! (in Serbian)
Thanks a lot! I was on the edge with my nerves.
Greetings from Serbia
DN21 said
u da man!!!!
thanx a bunch
Chuck said
Thank God, you are a life saver
That was driving me nutts for days.
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!!!!!!!
Styg said
Thank you very much!
Johnnym said
Yes this works, not sure how I got myself into this, but somehow a specific key sequence activates the accessibilities option and renders the numeric keypad unusable
Roachy said
Thanks for that…..you just saved my sanity
larix said
Worked. I think the should have keep it unchecked by default. Cheers.
Lapin-Blanc said
Thank you ! Finaly my numeric keypad is accessible !
Matt said
I have been using this workaround for months, unchecking “Allow to control the pointer using the keyboard” only persists for a few days or weeks, and they suddenly rechecks itself after a restart. Is there anything I can tweak in some configuration that would lock this down? It’s really freaking annoying to lose your work when Gnome borks itself without warning.
I am sure most people here have discovered the same, but few posted it. It’s an ongoing problem.
Matt said
works great. Thanks.
Trevor said
Thank you for the solution. However, I’m with Matt. What causes this? What key combination am I doing that keep re-enabling this? It is VERY annoying.
Peng said
I’m not sure why it keeps resetting, other than during distro updates. There seem to be something in the update process that normalizes settings, and someone should probably file a bug on that (if one isn’t filed already, of course). If you find a key combination that forces it to be reset please let us know.
Chris B said
Worked a treat, thanks!
Hermann said
Oh man, thanks a lot for that, it was driving me up the wall!
Eduardo said
Excelente solución, gracias!!!
Alan Stevenson said
Looks like Muphry’s Law strikes again.
You criticize the grammar in the dialog box:
Then you follow up in the next sentence with this little chestnut:
Awesome
Thanks for the tip though. 0123456789. Aaaaah. Sweet numbers.
Ivan said
Perfect!!! Thanks!
John said
THANsK ALLOTz !!
Now my koabard weurkz fined agoen !! Thaz rilleay look.
Rob said
Keypad suddenly broke on jaunty. Your suggestion helped!
Thanks!
Rob
Ionut said
Man, thank you. You saved my life! Damn, I was lost without my numeric keypad … Thanks and God bless you!