setleds

Turn on NumLock LED

$ setleds +num

$ setleds -caps

$ setleds +scroll

$ setleds -D +num

$ setleds

$ setleds -L +num

$ setleds -D +num < /dev/tty1

setleds [-v] [-L] [-D] [-F] [{+|-}num] [{+|-}caps] [{+|-}scroll]

setleds controls the keyboard LED indicators (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock) on Linux virtual consoles. Without arguments, it reports the current LED and flag settings.
The command manipulates both the virtual terminal flags (which affect keyboard behavior) and the physical LED states. Use -F to change only VT behavior, -L to change only LEDs, or -D to set persistent defaults.
This is commonly used in /etc/rc scripts to set the initial NumLock state for console logins.

+num / -num

Set or clear NumLock

Set or clear CapsLock

Set or clear ScrollLock

Only change VT flags (default); LEDs may reflect the change

Change flags and defaults; changes persist after console reset

Only change LEDs without affecting VT flags

Verbose mode; report changes

setleds affects only virtual consoles (TTYs), not graphical environments (X11/Wayland) where the desktop environment manages keyboard LEDs. Requires appropriate permissions for the target terminal device. Part of the kbd package.

setleds is part of the kbd package, a collection of keyboard utilities for Linux console management. It provides low-level control over keyboard indicators that predates modern desktop environments.

showkey(1), loadkeys(1), dumpkeys(1)