Indicator-Keylock: control and monitor caps, num & scroll lock from the panel

By , Published September 5, 2010

Indicator Keylock applet

Everyone knows that I’m partial to small but useful applets so this next one – for monitoring and controlling caps/num/scroll lock – is yet another great addition to Indicator-Applet arsenal.

Why is it useful?

Many keyboards and netbook – such as my own -don’t display ‘indicator’ lights to signify whether Caps, scroll or Number lock is on. To find out in instances like these you normally have to manually find out by entering text in a field or trying to scroll down a page.

Indicator-Keylock solves this: If the relevant indicator icon appears brighter in the menu then the lock is on, if it’s off then the relevant icon is dull. Better still you can simply hit the key and a notification bubble will tell you the status.

Install

Indicator-Keylock can be installed from the PAA of developer  T. Scott Barnes. Currently it only supports Lucid but it does also work in Maverick.

  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock
  • sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indicator-keylock

The applet also comes with icons for Elementary, Ubuntu Mono & Humanity. Install the relevant set using the links below.

  • sudo apt-get install indicator-keylock-ubuntu-mono
  • sudo apt-get install  indicator-keylock-humanity
  • sudo apt-get install indicator-keylock-elementary

Related posts:

  1. Indicator-Monitor puts system stressing process in plain sight
  2. Indicator-Workspaces does what it says on the tin
  3. indicator applets now work with awn
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  • dean

    This could be useful to me and my studio 1747..

  • http://slolinux.si kv1dr

    please don’t use dots before commands anymore because when you copy the command to terminal you got # before commands…this is anoying :)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Not if you copy properly, i’ve never had a ‘#’ inserted from copying a command here.

      • http://slolinux.si kv1dr

        I tripple click on command and then copy command to terminal, so firefox automaticaly copy the whole row with #. Why don’t you post commands like on webupd8? :)

      • http://neojames13.wordpress.com/ neojames13

        If you select multiple lines it does, at least in chrome.

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          Hence we I normally put ‘copy each command separately and carefully. ;)

          • Anonymous

            I understand, but I also get his point; putting the code in a code block would make things easier.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/44RKEMFIHPAGRRE4I4RILSNYDU FlyC

    me thinks this is totally useless, but well, 1 in a million can “need” it…

  • http://facebook.com/sploopidy James

    I get this error after putting in the second command:

    E: Couldn’t find package indicator-keylock

    Help? Please? :) Thanks in adcance.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Dumb question – but you are using Lucid? Other try updating again

      • http://facebook.com/sploopidy James

        Yup – sure am. But after trying your suggestion it magically seemed to work for me :D Thanks so much.

  • jurial_munkey

    so instead of typing in a box or scrolling to see if its on, you instead travel your mouse up to a small 24x24px square and then click? I don’t see how thats any faster… ?
    Wouldn’t an applet that shows the information in the panel be better than an indicator that shows the information in a menu?

    On the other hand, the notifications that pop-up when you hit the key are a great idea and should be default.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      On a netbook screen poking your mouse in an indicator box is far quicker than firing up Chrome, loading a page and then scrolling. It’s not as big an effort as you make out.

      The bubbles are, indeed, awesome and mean i can just hit a key to see what state it is in/toggle.

      • jurial_munkey

        Yes of course. It is, however, irrelevant to know whether or not CAPS is on if you are NOT going to type something, the same goes with Scroll-lock and Scrolling.

        My point is, the only time that you need to know whether CAPS is on or not is when you are about to type; and when your about to type there is already a text box already there; i.e. it is quicker to type in the text-box where your cursor probably already is, rather than moving it up to the panel and clicking. No, it definitely isn’t hard, but typing in the text box is easier — so what is its point?

        I honestly cannot think of any situation where the indicator would be more convenient… please prove me wrong.

        Nevertheless, if it were, instead, a small panel-applet that displayed three small lights or icons in the actual panel; THEN I could completely see the relevance.

        • ActionParsnip

          Who uses caps in Linux ;)

        • http://twitter.com/bonzi200x sajith kalathingal

          It is useful when you have username saved and then you have to type password. I use an app called keyboard lock keys. It used black “A” when caps lock is on and grey “A” when it is off.

        • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj

          One situation that comes to mind is typing passwords – you won’t see whether CAPS is on or not

      • jurial_munkey

        Yes of course. It is, however, irrelevant to know whether or not CAPS is on if you are NOT going to type something, the same goes with Scroll-lock and Scrolling.

        My point is, the only time that you need to know whether CAPS is on or not is when you are about to type; and when your about to type there is already a text box already there; i.e. it is quicker to type in the text-box where your cursor probably already is, rather than moving it up to the panel and clicking. No, it definitely isn’t hard, but typing in the text box is easier — so what is its point?

        I honestly cannot think of any situation where the indicator would be more convenient… please prove me wrong.

        Nevertheless, if it were, instead, a small panel-applet that displayed three small lights or icons in the actual panel; THEN I could completely see the relevance.

      • http://www.google.com/profiles/harveycabaguio Harvey

        Or you could run gnome-do. Much faster that way.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj

    when Canonical started this silly business with indicators they claimed that one reason for it is that every possible app uses notification area whether it is necessary or not. And now we have hundreds of indicators which clutter the panel the same, with one difference – they take up more space.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Developers are not forced to use an indicator with their application, likewise users aren’t forced to install every application-indicator available.

      These aren’t all one big super package, you can pick and choose which ones you want to install so, for people like me, the screenshot applet is much quicker to use than a traditional screenshot application which has a window and a tray icon etc.

      • ActionParsnip

        Imagine if you did, you’d need a whole bar just for indicators. Itd be hilarious. They should do an article on here named “Moron’s use LOADS of indicators”. It’s be the funniest thing since that girl got punched on X factor

        • http://www.obfuscatepenguin.net/ Marc

          If someone wants lots of indicators on *their* panel, then that’s their choice. It has nothing to do with intelligence, or with you. The belittling tone of so many of your comments is disappointing.

          (Incidentally, people who put apostrophes in plurals, and refer to “they” in a reply to the site creator, could probably be ridiculed too.)

        • Monkey Steve

          Perhaps the next version will feature 3 indicator applets, one each for num-lock,caps-lock and scroll-lock!

        • Anonymous

          dont worry there will be an indicator to place and hide inside all your other extra indicators :)

          i much prefer my indicators because they look and feel so much better. Consistency !

          all those old tray icons were just a big mess!

          for people who prefer their tray icons, hopefully someone will make a tray-icon-indicator just for u…

      • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj

        You are absolutely right, I just wanted to point out that dropping old notfication area in favour of indicators does not, contrary to what has been said by Canonical, solve the cluttering problem. Ultimately it depends on users and devs. So maybe the whole change was not needed?

        • Anonymous

          It was needed. Tray icons are fiefdoms, with each defining it’s own appearance and behavior, irrelevant of it’s surroundings. Indicators provide a consistent interface the is controlled by the “system”, therefor allowing it to be displayed differently in different circumstances, without the application having to do anything extra, or being able to interfere and mess things up. It also allows the same menus to appear in multiple places. Example: Look at the KDE system tray. If you put any “legacy” tray icons in there and try to rotate it, they will get out of line and just float there, looking very alien. Also, if you create a second system tray, the tray icons in the first ones will stay where they are and won’t appear in the second, while any new tray icons will only appear in the second tray. The only consistency here is that the tray the icon appears in depends on the time in which the icon was created, and nothing else.

        • Anonymous

          It was needed. Tray icons are fiefdoms, with each defining it’s own appearance and behavior, irrelevant of it’s surroundings. Indicators provide a consistent interface the is controlled by the “system”, therefor allowing it to be displayed differently in different circumstances, without the application having to do anything extra, or being able to interfere and mess things up. It also allows the same menus to appear in multiple places. Example: Look at the KDE system tray. If you put any “legacy” tray icons in there and try to rotate it, they will get out of line and just float there, looking very alien. Also, if you create a second system tray, the tray icons in the first ones will stay where they are and won’t appear in the second, while any new tray icons will only appear in the second tray. The only consistency here is that the tray the icon appears in depends on the time in which the icon was created, and nothing else.

      • Anonymous

        i really like that is integrated with ubuntu notifications, it looks good. it was something missing

  • Eun

    That notify bubble should be in the top position, not the bottom one, because it is an confirmation bubble

    • Eun

      Notify OSD should display two types of bubbles, which this specification calls confirmation bubbles (confirmation of e.g. change in sound volume, change in display brightness, or ejecting a CD) and notification bubbles (e.g. instant message, unrequested change in Internet connectivity).

  • Eun

    That notify bubble should be in the top position, not the bottom one, because it is an confirmation bubble

  • Eisenmann

    What I don’t understand is why there are these indicators in one place (sound, keylock, etc.) but the one for logout and me-menu is a separate one.

  • Lke

    Thanks!
    Let the user choose how many icons to show, es both caps and num: more pixels used but also more infos…

  • AlexIdentity

    Indicators, indicators, indicators. New OS (Indicator Linux) xD

  • Seahorse Pip

    it doesn´t work on maverick because the command ¨sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock¨ adds the maverick reporsity that not exist =P
    so change it from graphical manager back to lucid will fix it ;)

  • Chris Nichols

    I’ve been looking for something like this for Ubuntu for a long time. It’s nice to have something to tell me when I have capslock on instead of finding out as I type. If I cant get an OSD of my keyboard states, like you can with Mac OS X and Windows, this is the next best thing on Ubuntu.

  • Anonymous

    Is this some sort of a strange joke? In which situation is it faster to move your mouse all the way up to the top of the screen instead of looking at the keyboard lights?

    • http://twitter.com/Heimpjuh Heimen Stoffels

      On keyboards which don’t have keyboard lights? I have a few here w/o keyboard lights, so yeah, they exist.

  • Anonymous

    I actually find this extremely useful as i dont have lights on my keyboard (its wireless)

    • Anonymous

      exactly the creator must had your same situation
      someone created it because of need, not just for the fun of making indicators (well, maybe both)

    • Anonymous

      This may come in handy for me at work where I have a wireless Logitech setup. Silly Logitech and their relying on the Windows system tray for its indicators!

  • http://www.facebook.com/ultysagar SAM

    Is there any way that app runs at startup without showing up in tray? The Notification bubbles are necessary but i dont want indicator in tray.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ultysagar SAM

    Is there any way that app runs at startup without showing up in tray? The Notification bubbles are necessary but i dont want indicator in tray.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ultysagar SAM

    Is there any way that app runs at startup without showing up in tray? The Notification bubbles are necessary but i dont want indicator in tray.

  • Anonymous

    it would be cool and even more useful if they added changing keyboard languages to that.

    personally i have to change between english and spanish very frequently

    the current way of changing languages is currently not very integrated

  • Ryan

    You know, this isn’t just about the indicator applet. It also provides notifications when you toggle keylocks, which can really provide useful warnings in case you toggle CaPS LOCK ON BY ACCIDENT.

    • http://lukaszklich.pl Łukasz Klich

      Caps lock is just bad and evil. I prefer to disable it or remap it to something more usefull, like right-ctrl

  • Anonymous

    Maybe it would be useful if they merge it with the keyboard indicator. On itself it is plain stupid…

  • Anonymous

    Maybe it would be useful if they merge it with the keyboard indicator. On itself it is plain stupid…

  • Anonymous

    When plugins are grouped under their respective app in the USC, it will be very easy to find and disable/enable things like this.

  • Anonymous

    When plugins are grouped under their respective app in the USC, it will be very easy to find and disable/enable things like this.

  • http://twitter.com/valbaca88 Valentin Baca

    IMO, the notification pop-up should be standard in Ubuntu and he Panel applet should be optional.

  • http://twitter.com/valbaca88 Valentin Baca

    IMO, the notification pop-up should be standard in Ubuntu and he Panel applet should be optional.

  • Anonymous

    Would it not be easier to have a panel applet, which 3 virtual led’s to replace the missing ones on the keyboard. Then you wouldn’t need to click anywhere to see. It would be right in front of you like on normal keyboards.

  • Anonymous

    Would it not be easier to have a panel applet, which 3 virtual led’s to replace the missing ones on the keyboard. Then you wouldn’t need to click anywhere to see. It would be right in front of you like on normal keyboards.

  • Guest

    how can i switch between the icons?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XFC4MYC7MAOB7647QNH7XLPOWM Vance

    Hmmm… installed the program, but… no indicator?!

  • http://twitter.com/cranil Anil C R

    damn! I wrote code for this my self a couple of months ago lol!

  • http://twitter.com/cranil Anil C R

    damn! I wrote code for this my self a couple of months ago lol!

  • http://ahylianhuman.wordpress.com/ Rod Davis

    There should be some Faenza icons for this indicator. The default hicolor ones are really crappy. :(
    No offense, but really.

 
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