Hi,

I recently decided to replace Lenny on my laptop with Squeeze. All went fine, but now with both GDM and GDM3, the Caps and Num locks come on when GDM starts, and behave erratically. I have to hit the caps/num lock key several times to disable the lock, and sometimes it will come on again after a random time. This behavior persists into my GNOME session. I'll be working on code and *&%#! -- on comes the caps/num locks.

Initially I thought this was an X issue. I uninstalled GDM3 (which is the version installed by squeeze) and logged in at the console then started X via startx. The caps and num locks remained off and behaved in the normal manner. I then tried SLiM, and again the keys behaved normally.

Then I tried GDM (2.20 in the squeeze repos), and it behaved the same as GDM3.

Even though I purged GDM3 and GDM, I'm wondering if there's some residual configuration data in my home directory, but I can't seem to find anything related.

Using SLiM isn't so bad, but once I log in I get asked to unlock the keyring, so typing my password twice to log gets annoying.

Suggestions?

TIA.

Numlock behaviour within Gnome is controlled by Preferences > keyboard > Layouts > Options.
How GDM turns numlock on by default is beyond me. I had to install numlockx first and add it to /etc/gdm/Init/Default.

Layouts > Options was the first thing I played with.

Its not an issue of it turning on by default. The problem is that pressing the key does not turn it off. I have to press repeatedly and it will turn itself back on at random. It happens with Caps Lock too.

This is only when using GDM or GDM3, and persists into the GNOME session. Using SLiM or no DM to start a GNOME session does not exhibit this behavior.

Something interesting...

If, when GDM/GDM3 starts, I switch to a virtual console via Ctrl+Alt+Fx, the caps- and numlocks turn off and stay that way for the sesion (unless I turn either on). I can then use Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to X and log in normally.