Activating numlock on bootup

Console

Early bootup (mkinitcpio)

You can enable numlock right after the kernel boots in the initramfs. This is the only way to ensure numlock is on even during full-disk encryption password entry. Install mkinitcpio-numlock^AUR and add the numlock mkinitcpio hook before encrypt in the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf HOOKS array:

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

...
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont numlock modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
...

Then regenerate the initramfs for the change to take effect.

An advantage of using this method is that the numlock setting will be replicated in the later boot process, and new virtual consoles will default to having numlock on.

With systemd service

Tip: These steps can be automated by installing the systemd-numlockontty^AUR package and enabling the numLockOnTty service.

First create a script to set the numlock on relevant TTYs:

/usr/local/bin/numlock

#!/bin/bash

for tty in /dev/tty{1..6}
do
    /usr/bin/setleds -D +num < "$tty";
done

Once the script is created, you will need to make it executable. Otherwise the script cannot run.

Then create and enable a systemd service:

/etc/systemd/system/numlock.service

[Unit]
Description=numlock

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/numlock
StandardInput=tty
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Extending getty@.service

This is simpler than using a separate service and does not hardcode the number of VTs in a script. Create a drop-in snippet for getty@.service which are applied on top of the original unit:

/etc/systemd/system/getty@.service.d/activate-numlock.conf

[Service]
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c 'setleds -D +num < /dev/%I'

Note: If you experience any problems, try replacing ExecStartPre with ExecStartPost, and/or disabling the hint as described below.

To disable the numlock activation hint displaying on the login screen, edit getty@tty1.service and add --nohints to agetty options:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty '-p -- \\u' --nohints --noclear %I $TERM

Bash alternative

Add setleds -D +num to ~/.bash_profile. Note that, unlike the other methods, this will not take effect until after you log in.

X.org

Various methods are available.

startx

Install the numlockx package and add it to the ~/.xinitrc file before exec:

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
#

numlockx &

exec window_manager

MATE

By default, MATE saves the last state on logout and restores it during the next login. To enable Numlock on every login, you must change the following DCONF-Values:

dconf write org.mate.peripherals-keyboard remember-numlock-state false
dconf write org.mate.peripherals-keyboard numlock-state 'on'

KDE Plasma

Go to System Settings > Input Devices > Keyboard, in the Hardware tab, in the NumLock on Plasma Startup section, choose the desired NumLock behavior.

GDM

Note: GDM does not execute scripts in /etc/gdm/Init anymore.

Make sure that you have numlockx installed then add the following code to ~/.xprofile:

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

GNOME

Run the following command:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.keyboard numlock-state true

In order to remember last state of numlock key (whether you disabled or enabled), use:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.keyboard remember-numlock-state true

Note: The key numlock-state was moved from org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.keyboard since GNOME 3.34[1]

Alternatively, you can use add numlockx on (from numlockx to a startup script, like ~/.bashrc (if using Bash) or ~/.profile.

Xfce

In the file ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/keyboards.xml, make sure the following values are set to true:

<property name="Numlock" type="bool" value="true"/>
<property name="RestoreNumlock" type="bool" value="true"/>

Note: If the file does not exist then open Settings > Keyboard, then check and uncheck the Restore num lock state on startup. This will create the keyboards.xml file.

SDDM

In the file /etc/sddm.conf, under the [General] section, set Numlock value to on :

[General]
...
Numlock=on

SLiM

In the file /etc/slim.conf find the line and uncomment it (remove the #):

#numlock             on

OpenBox

In the file ~/.config/openbox/autostart add the line:

numlockx &

And then save the file.

LightDM

See LightDM#NumLock on by default.

LXDM

Set the option in /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf:

numlock=1

LXQt

Set the option in ~/.config/lxqt/session.conf:

[Keyboard]
numlock=true

Wayland

Sway

See Sway#Initially enable CapsLock/NumLock.