Keyboard issue on Ubuntu

Hello,

Sorry for the delayed response -- I was on vacation ^^

To summarize my situation:

a) I would like my Compaq Presario (laptop) C700 to have a keyboard behavior (identical to that of Windows) where activating Caps Lock inverts not only the letters but also the row of keys above: & é " ' ( - è ...). The Shift key correctly inverts the pressed key regardless of the Caps Lock mode, including the row above.

b) To date, the keyboard is perfectly recognized under Ubuntu 9.04 and I have access to all characters of all keys. My concern is therefore not to get the keyboard recognized, but to modify the behavior of the Caps Lock key.

c) In System > Preferences > Keyboard > Layouts, the selected model is now "Compaq portable internet (e.g. Presario)" and the only layout displayed in the list is "France Other", as proposed during the installation of Ubuntu. In the layout options list, no specific option is selected.

d) The ONLY layout option that seemed close to the desired behavior is:
> "Caps Lock Key Behavior"
> > Caps Lock acts as locked Shift. Shift "temporarily cancels it"
Indeed, acting like a locked Shift is exactly the desired behavior, as it also inverts the upper row of keys (i.e. & in 1, é in 2, " in 3, etc...).
Unfortunately, enabling this option seems to change nothing in the inversion behavior of the upper row, which remains the same as unlocked Shift.

e) The only apparent anomaly (?) is that executing the command cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf produces no "Input device" section, which would suggest that no specific keyboard is installed/configured?

I hope I have been more explicit about the issue I am encountering.
Thank you for your advice.

Hello,

I wanted to thank you for your valuable help. The problem is indeed resolved. ^^

Hi,

you need to install numlockx!

just follow the instructions:

http://blog.aguillem.fr/47-ubuntu-activer-numlock-au-demarrage

http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/numlockx

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NumLock

@+

Thank you for your advice, but despite meticulously following the instructions, I still have my problem. In fact, I can't understand this instruction:

"Then you need to modify a file according to your graphical environment to add, at the beginning of the file (after the comments), the code:

if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then
exec /usr/bin/numlockx on
fi"

I don’t understand how to edit a file, actually. I'm sorry, but I’m completely new to this. ^^

I'm sorry, my answer is incorrect. numloclx has nothing to do with it since you say: (unfortunately I don't have a numeric keypad)

sorry I read a bit too quickly!

well, in any case, it has to do with your keyboard configuration!

by typing the command cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf, can you copy and paste the InputDevice section of your keyboard, please? Thanks.

here is mine on a Mandriva:

Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard1" Driver "kbd" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "fr" Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin" EndSection

Here is what appears:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

It has absolutely no similarity to what appears on your end. I hope I haven't made a mistake. I was supposed to type this in a terminal, right?

Thank you for your valuable help.

I realize that I may have expressed myself poorly in my first post. In fact, my caps lock key is malfunctioning. When I press it and type letters, they appear in uppercase, but when I type numbers, they do not show up. For example, instead of 1, it appears as & and instead of 2, it appears as é, etc. So, I hope these clarifications help you better understand my problem. Thank you for your assistance.

Hello,

if you copied your entire xorg.conf file......... then you are missing the entire section corresponding to the keyboard as in the example that was given to you a little further up.

your keyboard is not configured ....

--
a penguin on the ice shelf!

Very well, how should I proceed to configure it?

You need to read the Ubuntu documentation:
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/clavier
--
a penguin on the ice floe!

Up! A tip, assistance for the problem here, namely to have exactly the same keyboard behavior as under Windows (notably for accessing the numbers at the top of the keyboard in case of Caps Lock.)?
Thank you!

Coucou Récence -- please add "(Resolved)" at the end of your message title ;-)