KDE-5 Confusing setting - number pad moves mouse

[Richard Boyce]

Hi,

I recently started using KDE 5 from Debian unstable after spending a 
couple years using other window managers. KDE has really come along way 
in it flexibility and usability! Unfortunately, after I updated from KDE 
3 to KDE 5 the number pad failed to work. Because I had also upgrade 
Xorg I thought that this was a problem with the configuration in 
xorg.conf. After trying many different setting for the keyboard in the 
xorg.conf and still not having success I realized that it must be a KDE 
issue. Ultimately I found that the setting "move pointer with keyboard 
(using num pad) was selected under the "Mouse Navigation" tab of the 
"Mouse" configuration module in KDE Control Center (kcontrol). Being an 
shell and emacs user who loves every opportunity to use the keyboard 
over the mouse I think that this is a great feature. But, IMHO, think 
that there are a couple of problems with the current setup for selecting 
this option:

1. As far as I can tell, it came on by default - for people who do not 
know KDE well like me, this will be a big suprise
2. It is really hard to find out that this setting is on if you do not 
know about it. It might be good to put a flag in the toolbar (kicker) or 
pop a message box at log in telling the user about this setting. Number 
lock (numlock) failure looks to the unfamiliar user like an Xorg issue 
when they search for the problem using Google.
3. Since this affects the keyboard, the same option should be shown in 
the "Keyboard" module.
4. KDE Control's search feature does not properly index this option - if 
I search for "num" the only option I see is under the "Accessibility" 
module which does not contain the aforementioned option.


Thanks a bunch,
Richard