setleds error?

[Curtis Farnham]

I, too, prefer my Num Lock key on.  I have tried several times to set it
that way, but all the solutions I've seen involve a "setleds" command,
from which I keep getting the same error message:

        KGETLED: Invalid argument
        Error reading current led setting. Maybe stdin is not a VT?

Can anybody translate this into newbie-speak?

Thanks,
Curtis