keyboard mapping mixed up upon pressing NumLock

[Martin Konôpka]

Binary package hint: xorg

I have a notebook (Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo PRO V3205) which I often use with an external USB keyboard attached when I am at home. However if NumLock is active I can not normally use the notebook's own keyboard because its keyboard mapping is mixed up. For example when I press 'o' it types '6' on the terminal window. And many other keys are also incorrectly associated. (The external keyboard types OK.)

And now what is a quite unpleasant and a very serious closely related problem. The problem occurs following next few simple steps.

1.) I have the external USB keyboard attached with the NumLock active.
2.) I shut the operating system down.
3.) I detach the external keyboard.
4.) I start up the machine again. (I have automatic login set up.)
5.) I open a terminal and try to type (now using notebook's own keyboard). It types incorrectly. For example I get '6' instead of 'o' as I mentioned above.
6.) There is no easy way (at least for me) to get the correct keyboard mapping. The NumLock on my notebook is active but there is no way how to switch it off (because there is no dedicated key to do the switch on the notebook's keyboard). Even rebooting the machine does not help. Yes, there is a key named "Insert Num" and it indicates NumLock status "on" (by blue LED) under such circumstances. However pressing this key does not turn the NumLock status off.

Please imagine that such a situation happens say in a train where you do not have any external keyboard available. In such a situation a non-expert user gets lost because he/she has no way how to get the correct keybord mapping. (The only way would be to attach an external USB keyboard but he/she has left the thing at home, of course).

So, user gets to this awkward situation when he/she (at that moment being e.g. in a house) shuts down the OS with the NumLock key on and after that he/she tries to use such notebook without having an external keyboard at hand (typically in a train). Please realise that it is quite common to leave the NumLock key on. I think the key even turns on automatically in my case.

Finally, I noticed that the keyboard mapping is incorrect also in text console (Alt F2 for example) but it is differently incorrect.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.44-generic 2.6.32.21+drm33.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-25-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CurrentDmesg:
 [ 20.568419] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
 [ 96.362463] PPP BSD Compression module registered
 [ 96.387182] PPP Deflate Compression module registered
 [ 235.933126] CE: hpet increasing min_delta_ns to 15000 nsec
 [ 266.877151] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id
Date: Mon Oct 18 22:00:28 2010
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: FUJITSU SIEMENS AMILO Pro V3205
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=710ce00a-a2a7-42b2-a7b7-836672d4c674 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 02/14/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix
dmi.bios.version: 1.20
dmi.board.name: 10AD
dmi.board.vendor: FUJITSU
dmi.board.version: 03
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenix:bvr1.20:bd02/14/2007:svnFUJITSUSIEMENS:pnAMILOProV3205:pvrREV1:rvnFUJITSU:rn10AD:rvr03:cvnFUJITSUSIEMENS:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: AMILO Pro V3205
dmi.product.version: REV1
dmi.sys.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.32-25-generic

[Frank (webservice010a)]

Workaround: Disable NumLock

1. For Disabling it on Login Screen
2. Workaround for Unity-Session

1. For Disabling it on Login Screen
===========================
First, ensure that numlockx is installed, by typing these in terminal:
sudo apt-get install numlockx

Then, edit the file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
gksudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Add the following line to the file:
greeter-setup-script=/usr/bin/numlockx off

2. Workaround for Unity-Session
=========================
Click on the cog wheel on the top right corner of your screen and choose Startup Applications, or type "Startup..." in the Dash.
Add command "/usr/bin/numlockx off" as startup application.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Martin Konopka, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p xserver-xorg-input-evdev REPLACE-WITH-BUG-NUMBER

Please note, given that the information from the prior release is already available, doing this on a release prior to the development one would not be helpful.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Martin Konôpka (martin.konopka)]

At the moment I can not examine the bug on the machine (the Fujitsu-Siemens notebook) on which I originally reported it. Such testing would require to install the new system on the machine's hard drive. Once I can do the installation I will send the apport info. (Perhaps in few weeks.)

Now I can at least say that:

1.) After some time I found a simple treatment of the issue: if the keyboard gets mixed, just press three specific keys at the same time: Shift Fn Insert/Num (which is in effect just NumLock on the notebook). It helps at least on ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) with classic GNOME 2 which presently runs on the Fujitsu-Siemens.

2.) The bug does not affect my new HP ZBook 15 machine with the 64-bit ubuntu 13.10 running. Hence most likely the latest development version of ubuntu is also OK in this respect.

3.) There is still a small NumLock issue on the HP for which I will likely file in a separate report (issues with LED light indication both on the notebook and on the attached USB keyboard).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xserver-xorg-input-evdev (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]