number pads for laptops

[MICHAEL WEAVER]

Someone at my LUG has managed to help me get Ubuntu Breezy working on my 
laptop by doing a complete fresh install which seems to have solved the 
problem of the corrupt or missing files which caused the problem with me 
connecting to the Internet using my wireless card where my LUG meets and 
have got Gnopernicus running.
However we have had a couple of problems, one being Gnopernicus stopped 
speaking at some point for some reason and we kept getting an error message 
about no speech although hopefully now that my laptop is off, when I reboot 
I am hoping this problem will sort itself out when I do my total re-boot.
The other problem is that it does require a numeric pad.
If I bought one for my Compaq laptop, where would I plug it in, would it 
automatically be detected in Ubuntu and will it give me access to 
Gnopernicus commands which are key layers?
Can I also change my Hostname without having to do a full installation?
Also I notice on this list the mention of Dappa. It seems to be mentioned in 
the installation guide for Ubuntu but I notice that it isn't out yet and 
that it mentions April being the due month for release on the Ubuntu site. 
What puzzles me is why it is now refered to in the installation guide, how 
people have been able to obtain it before the release date and yet it isn't 
on the download link of the Ubuntu site.