How to get numpad out of "mouse emulation" mode?

Question

My numeric keypad has somehow got into a "mouse emulation" mode where the number keys just move the mouse pointer around (2 = down; 8 = up, 6 = right, etc). Anyone know how to make it work normally again?

None of the other numpad keys work either (I first noticed the whole thing when Ctrl + ÷ (numpad division sign) no longer produced "line comment" in IntelliJ IDEA). Toggling num lock doesn't affect this (though the indicator LED works as usual).

I'm using GNOME on Lucid Lynx (10.4).

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 22 '11 at 13:52

13

Or you can press SHIFT+NUMLOCK

answered Jan 22 '11 at 13:52

Lin

230

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 22 '12 at 07:08

You can permanently disable this incredibly annoying keybinding by editing /usr/share/X11/xkb/compat/complete in superuser mode (ie, gksudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/compat/complete) and commenting out mousekeys & accessx(full):

// $XKeyboardConfig$
// $Xorg: complete,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:34 cpqbld Exp $
default xkb_compatibility "complete" {
include "basic"
augment "iso9995"
//augment "mousekeys"
//augment "accessx(full)"
augment "misc"
augment "xfree86"
augment "level5"
};

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 21 '10 at 12:42

6

From the menu, use

System > Preferences > Keyboard

On the tab titled "Mouse Keys" there is a check box to toggle "Pointer can be controlled using the keypad" .

You can disable this behaviour there.

answered Oct 21 '10 at 12:42

Richard Holloway

31,150

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 30 '12 at 00:57

4

In Ubuntu 12.10, to solve this problem you can follow the below steps:

System Setting
Universal Access
Pointing and Clicking
Turn off the Mouse key by clicking the Mouse Key (Control the pointer)

edited Nov 30 '12 at 00:57

Mateo

8,152

answered Nov 27 '12 at 20:57

Russiachand

41

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 04 '16 at 18:03

3

Apart from Shift+NumLock (bound to the corresponding action to enable/disable this mode), an additional xkbset utility can be used to control this from command line:

xkbset -m

Learned this tip from Enabling mousekeys.

answered Jul 04 '16 at 18:03

imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev

1,062

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 21 '12 at 18:59

2

as root user, type the following command that will completely inhibit the feature:

gconftool-2 --direct --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/mousekeys_enable "false"

edited Nov 21 '12 at 18:59

devav2

37,290

answered Nov 21 '12 at 10:30

user109683

21

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 22 '12 at 06:54

1

Just a heads-up, in Ubuntu 12.04 (Unity) this "feature" can be enabled and disabled in the Universal Access dialogue under the Pointing and Clicking tab.

answered Aug 22 '12 at 06:54

Mike

11

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 12 '20 at 10:46

On my 20.04 I could only get out of that mode using the following command which has been kindly suggested here:

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/a11y/keyboard/mousekeys-enable true

Maybe too many system upgrades and prior fiddling made it the only way out for me.

How to get numpad out of "mouse emulation" mode?

8 Answers8