Are you talking about the numlock itself or the numlock light (led)? The numlock led not lighting up in Xvesa is standard.
saved as usual by jason w (or often curaga, but not this time) i figured this was related to the sdl issue, and it seems that if i make certain numlock is off, i can use the arrow keys when the numlock is (un)set properly... but only if numlock is in the right status before i start dosbox. what an odd standard for xvesa, the numlock status tells me nothing? oh well. (if none of that made sense, you're right about this issue.)