I believe most of us have experienced situations where we entered a password but the system repeatedly rejected it. Then we realized that it was our fault because we didn’t realize that the Caps Lock key was on.
Is there a way to avoid this situation? For Ubuntu / Linux, you can use the key lock indicator to display the status of the key lock on the screen. Here, we show you two of these tools: Lock-Keys and Keyboard Modifiers Status extensions.
1. Lock-Keys Extension
The Lockkeys tool is basically a Gnome extension tool, mainly designed for keyboards without LED lights for locking keys.
It works by simulating a keylock, displaying an indicator on the desktop and a status in the top bar of Ubuntu.
This tool also allows the user to switch the state of the locked key by clicking the mouse, which is also very useful when the keyboard starts to malfunction.
Install and Configuration
We will use gnomeextensions to enable the Lockkeys tool.
For this, we need to install several requirements. Start the terminal and enter the command:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension -y
Once we have the Gnome shell extensions installed, we can proceed and add the lock-key indicator tool.
Launch the Firefox browser and navigate to the lock-keys download page.
On the download page, Firefox asks you to install a browser extension, which allows you to install the gnome extension directly from the browser.
Click continue to installation and allow to install the browser extension, then refresh the browser window with an On/Off Button.
Fix Host Connector Error!
In some cases, you may encounter an error that the host connector is not detected.
To resolve this issue, you must install chromegnomeshell. Use the command
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell -y
Note: if you refresh the browser window and still get a host connector error, try logging out and back in again.
Install Lock Keys Extension
The final step is to install the lock keys extension. In the browser window, simply click the on switch to activate the extension.
This will ask you whether you want to install the extension. Click install to proceed with the installation process.
Configure Keys
Once the installation is completed, you should see the lock keys enabled and available in the top bar.
You should now get an indicator showing when the keys are enabled or disabled.
If you don’t want the indicator icons on the top bar, you can disable them by configuring the extension settings.
First open the gnomeextensions tool from the Ubuntu application.
Then select the lock key option and click the settings icon.
Lastly, set the flag style to notification only. This will remove the icon from the top bar and only show the keyswitch on the screen.
2. Keyboard Modifiers Status
Depending on the distribution or version of Gnome you are running, you may receive an error or the lock key extension may not work.
Another workaround is to use the keyboard modifier status tool.
Start Firefox and navigate to the Keyboard Modifiers Status extension page.
Similarly, activate or deactivate the option to activate the extension.
After installing the extension, you need to enable the key prompt and be available on the top bar for configuration.
No Responses