According to the lore(1) the reason that the kernel unconditionally turns off the num lock was so that Linus' laptop came up ready to type.
The issue is that if you force num lock on, then laptop users are messed up since for most laptops your keyboard changes as follows: 7890 = 789* uiop = 456- jkl; = 123+ m./ = 0./ So the only safe choice is "force off" or "Follow BIOS" (preferable). Are there any technical or political reasons why kernel can't change from "force off" to "Follow BIOS"? Some distributions implement "Follow BIOS" in their bootup scripts but the most just follow the kernel. IMHO, it would be very nice if the "Follow BIOS" was done by the kernel so this would Just Work(tm) everywhere in all situations (such as rescue environments where the normal bootup scripts aren't processed). Thanks, Dax Kelson (1) http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2003-September/msg00713.html - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
