Comment 17 for bug 507372

Some more experimentation lead to a way to fix this issue temporarily:

xkbwatch -> the third row is partially lit

xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Num_Lock Meta_L'
Pressed Meta_L (key with windows logo on my kb)

xkbwatch -> nothing is lit

I can restore the old situation:
xmodmap -e 'clear mod2'
xmodmap -e 'add mod = Num_Lock'

And creating bullets works fine in zim UNTIL I press Num lock, at which point it stays stuck again (visible with xkbwatch) until I go through the procedure again. It looks like possibly broken X behaviour but I don't nearly know enough about X internals to debug it any further.

Are other users seeing the same problem by any chance laptop users? I have a hunch that it may have something to do with the Fn key handling for laptop keyboards but then again I might be way off.