Numpad/NumLock not working on Whonix 18.1.4.2 (LXQt)

VirtualBox
1

Hi there!

I’m experiencing an issue where my Numpad is not working on Whonix 18.1.4.2 (LXQt version). I am using a Portuguese (Brazil) ABNT2 keyboard layout.

When I try to configure it via “Keyboard and Mouse” settings, I get the message: “LXQt input settings are currently unsupported under Wayland”.

I have already tried adding numlockx on & to my ~/.config/labwc/autostart, but it didn’t work (likely due to the Wayland/Labwc transition). The Numpad works perfectly fine on Whonix 17 (XFCE) with the same VirtualBox settings.

Is there a specific way to force NumLock on at startup for Labwc in this version?

Thanks!

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LXQt’s input device settings currently don’t work under Wayland unfortunately. However, you can configure input device settings using labwc’s configuration file. See:

Search for ‘numlock’ to find the setting you’re looking for. The labwc configuration file should be placed at ~/.config/labwc/rc.xml (you will likely need to create the ~/.config/labwc directory, then save the file within it). A config file that will probably work is:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<labwc_config>
  <keyboard>
    <numlock>on</numlock>
  </keyboard>
</labwc_config>
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I find that sometimes my numpad does not work, but usually it does work. It might be an upstream virtualbox issue.

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I couldnt reproduce the issue on my end but i have documented the steps in case its useful:

@rogmen if you can report back your experience that would be great.

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Hi. Thanks for the reply, but it is still not working.

I have noticed a very specific behavior: The numeric keypad works perfectly in Whonix-Gateway-LXQt, but it rarely works in Whonix-Workstation-LXQt.

Special characters like áéíóú, àèìòù, âêîôû, ãẽĩõũ on the BR-ABNT2 layout are working fine. Mathematical symbols around the numpad ( / * - + ) also work as expected.

However, the numbers (0-9) on the numpad do not work at all in the Workstation, regardless of whether NumLock is ON or OFF. It seems the compositor or the input handler is not registering the numerical input from those specific keys, even though the same hardware and layout configuration work fine on the Gateway.

Has anyone experienced this discrepancy between the two VMs?

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6

OK, I just tested a bit more and I can reproduce this issue. It looks like kloak is messing up something related to Num Lock, which is strange since it doesn’t initially seem to have an effect on Caps Lock. Will try to figure out what’s wrong and create a fix for it.

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Alright, this is officially one of the weirder bugs I’ve run into. It turns out that if the guest OS does not turn on the Num Lock keyboard LED to reflect whether Num Lock is on, the Num Lock breaks (ish) under VirtualBox. I have no idea why this is the case, but this patch seems to fix the issue:

I had failed to do this initially since the hardware I was using for most of my testing did not have a Num Lock or Caps Lock LED at all, so I never noticed that LEDs weren’t turning on when I pressed the corresponding buttons.

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i have the same issue, but also a Caps Lock issue. this is what i’m experiencing

  • Caps Lock gets randomly inverted
  • Num lock (numpad) has different behavior depending on the app. The numbers might work on one app and on another app it will trigger the arrows (up, down, etc)

thank you for the support

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Hi ArrayBolt3,

Thank you so much for the reply and for your support!

Regarding the update, I’m not sure if it has taken effect yet on my system, as I’ve noticed that the numpad sometimes worked before, but perhaps I just hadn’t realized I needed to toggle it.

About the visual feedback: the Num Lock LED does not turn off when I switch windows; it stays lit. However, the numbers only register in the new window (e.g., switching from Terminal to Firefox) after I manually toggle Num Lock OFF and then ON again.

If this is the only remaining issue, I don’t mind performing this manual toggle for now. Please consider this just as feedback for a potential future fix.

Thanks again for the great work!

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To be clear; this is when switching windows within the VM, not switching between the VM window and other windows on the host system?

If that’s the case, could you try to create full reproduction steps for this, starting with “boot Whonix-Workstation”? That way I can try to reproduce this on my end.