Number pad not working in Ubuntu? I feel your pain. After an upgrade to Hardy, my numberpad stopped working in Ubuntu Linux. I decided to look around in the Keyboard preferences and found my answer. I found that mousekeys was enabled. To get the use of my num pad back, all I had to do was disable mousekeys.
So, here’s the quick step by step to enable the number pad:
Step 1: Click on System Menu
Step 2: Mouse over on Preferences
Step 3: Click on Keyboard
This brings up the Keyboard preferences window.
Step 4: Click on the Mouse Keys tab
Step 5: Disable the “Allow to control the pointer using the keyboard” checkbox.
Step 6: Click close and ensure that your Num lock is on. 
At this stage you should have full use of your number pad.
Update: There is a shortcut key to toggle Mousekeys also. You can do this by pressing the SHIFT and Num Lock keys together.
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Thank you! Now in my case it worked fine for weeks after the Hardy upgrade but all of the sudden a couple of days ago (probably because of an update), *poof* numpad functionality was gone. Disabling this setting worked.
Thank you for this. I don’t know how this become enabled, but this did the trick.
Thank you!!!
Thanks! This issue was driving me MAD in Ibex!
Thank you!
My numpad was acting all screwy; the keys were mixed up.
I nearly replaced the keyboard! Instead a five minute websearch brought me here. Man I love community.
Thanks!!!
Thanks very much…worked a treat!
You are Wizard!
Thank you!!!
Thank alot.
I have disable my numpad accidently. ? dont know how i did it
But this information helped me.
Thank you! Quickest fix ever!
You’re all very welcome.
There’s a key combination of “SHIFT” + “Num Lock” that activates the numpad also. So look out for that too.
Thanks alot!
as rvdavid says “Shift” + “Num Lock” does the trick aswell (both ways, I guess thats how I got the problem in the first place).
Thanks! My numpad “broke” also and this post fixed it
Thank you.
It works for me
I was going to format my Debian Install and start from scratch, and that’s alot of work for my setup…
but then i found this…
Thanks a lot!!
@mlebel – haha! I can totally relate to what you’re saying – re-installing from scratch because of a few niggling little quirks. I’m glad this blog post has saved you a lot of work – you’re welcome!
Thanks!
Now, I only want to find that Idiot who made this “feature” a default and a group of Idiots who approved this. This is a “little thing” from the technical perspective, but is a Major flaw for most non-techies. What would piss off more people — losing the use of their numpad or not having some obscure mouse control feature on (by default)? I bet Microsoft would had never done something like this to their OS!
But to you, rvdavid, thank you!
- Igor
You’re welcome Igor, but I think some of you’re comments a little harsh.
I agree that the shortcut key is obscure though.
It should have been better documented I guess. But then again I seldom read documentation. lol
thanks man!!! my number pad just stopped working all of a sudden a few days ago. i tried replacing batteries (wireless keyboard) but no joy… now it works again
This was the fastest fix that I have ever found for any problem with Linux. Thanks rvdavid. Although I do agree with Igor that this feature should not be enabled by default. Thanks again.
You’re welcome Fabricio and kpiascik
I’m glad that it’s helped you out.
maddening. thanks rvdavid.
Thank u so much,
It helps me a lot
Thank you very much. I just did a simple update yesterday and this problem appeared.
I’m using 9.10 ( Karmic Koala) by the way and this worked perfectly.
This is the BEST Post EVER!
Shift+NumLock to enable/disable my numberpad. So Cool, You Rock Thank you!
My Little Kid loves bashing my keyboard and he’s always doing wierd things and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my NumberPad, it just wasn’t working, only going up and down etc..
Shift and Num Lock
(trying to remember for next time)
Perfect! I thought my keyboard was dying but it worked fine when rebooting to XP! This fixed it for me. I’ll try to remember that hot-key to toggle it.
Thank-you!
You’re welcome guys
glad this post is still helping ppl out a year and a bit later.
It’s still only 19th February here (see date of your last post rvdavid) on the wet coast of Canada and the post just helped me. I echo all that has been said before. Thanks a lot.
heh good stuff – you gotta love the global community.
Glad it helped you out buddy. keep in touch.
Thanks – works like a charm! Was bummed when this stopped working on my laptop since having a number pad on a laptop is a major plus to me.