Re: NUM Lock , Home, End

[Marty <martyb@ix.netcom.com>]

John Hasler wrote:
> Marty writes:
> > Some init scripts use configation files in /etc/default, and I guess the
> > script's stop routine could store the NUMLOCK state upon system shutdown,
> > if that state is accessable from the system.
>
> That would set it globally, not for each user.

I agree, and I see that I missed your point.  On the other hand it could solve
the original problem in the majority of practical cases.

Maybe the ultimate solution would be a mechanism for changing global defaults
on the fly, either automatically or by user initiative.  I'm thinking of something
along the lines of udev/hotplug, which prove that even Unix can learn new tricks,
although I'm not sure about the level of kernel involvement.  Whether multi-user
PCs represent a large enough user base to justify the effort, is another matter.

Since Windows was brought up earlier in this thread, I'll just point out that
the issues are much simpler because Windows doesn't allow more than one concurrent
user logging in on the console, so it's not a fair comparison.  Given a choice I
would rather live with Debian's limitations.