Does the spacemacs have a absolute line number setting, opposed to relative line numbers in the emacs dot files " dotspacemacs-line-numbers 'relative "?
set it to t
From the documentation:
Documentation: Control line numbers activation. If set to ‘t’ or ‘relative’ line numbers are turned on in all ‘prog-mode’ and ‘text-mode’ derivatives. If set to ‘relative’, line numbers are relative.