Thanks for the tip.  I have been wondering this myself but never got sufficiently motivated to do a web search or post a question.

On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Kevin Brown wrote:

> Found this also:
> 
> http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/resource/res_aolm-faq.html#2.5
> 
> 2.5 How can I set NUMLOCK to be on at boot time?
> 
>        This question really has two answers. One applies to consoles and the
> other to the X Window System.
> 
>        For console ttys: add the following to the end of your startup script
> '/etc/rc.d/rc.local' :
> 
>        INITTTY=/dev/tty[1-12]
>        for tty in $INITTTY; do
>        setleds -D +num <$tty
>        done
> 
>        (Note that this is straight from the man page for setleds.)
> 
>        For X, you need to edit the file '/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/types/basic'.
> The last section of the file is the "KEYPAD" section and looks like:
> 
>        type "KEYPAD" {
>        modifiers = Shift+NumLock;
>        map[None] = Level1;
>        map[Shift] = Level2;
>        map[NumLock] = Level2;
>        map[Shift+NumLock] = Level1;
>        level_name[Level1] = "Base";
>        level_name[Level2] = "Number";
> 
>        To set NUMLOCK on by default, simply change every occurrence of "Level1"
> to "Level2" and change every occurrence of "Level2" to "Level1" (without the
> quotes). Then restart X. Note that the behavior of the NUMLOCK light will change
> as well (i.e. the light will be lit when NUMLOCK is OFF and will be dark when
> NUMLOCK is ON).
> 
> > Tom Achtenberg wrote:
> > 
> > Here is an easy one I can't find in any of the books.  How can I have the num
> > lock stay on when I boot?  The bios has it set on but right after the Linux
> > kernel loads it turns off.  There must be a setting somewhere.
> > 
> > 
> > Tom Achtenberg
> > 
> > Registered Linux User #242974 (See http://counter.li.org
> > Visit my home page at http://achtenberg.com
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