Changing the cursor in GNOME

nomadrouge · 2010-06-18 01:13:49

Alright, I do not consider myself so much as a newbie to bother the busy people here at the Archlinux forums with a simple question of how to change my cursor with the GNOME DE. I have had a problem that has truly befuddled me, and after hours of aggravation I finally have resorted to pestering the forum.

The problem is that I cannot change my cursor. I will select a new theme for my cursor and it will not change. It continues to be the ugly, black, pixilated default pointer. It frustrates me to no end when I see my nice theme ruined with this hideous cursor.

However, occasionally I do get the cursor of my selection shown, but this only happens when I put my cursor over a window like firefox and openoffice. Even in those windows, when I put my cursor over the menu bar, the panel, or the desktop, it switches back to that nasty default pointer.

Please, someone, guide me through what is going wrong and fix it.

I have tried editing my .Xdefaults, and editing my various theme files to no avail.

anonymous_user · 2010-06-18 01:22:38

Try using this to change your cursor:

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=36585

gnome-fix -c [cursor name]

Anikom15 · 2010-06-18 01:25:56

This ugly, black, pixilated default pointer is my favorite you whining little brat.

As for your problem, you might want to go to preferences > appearance and click customize and look in the pointer tab and tell us what's selected. Maybe post your .Xdefaults, though I doubt that's the problem. Seems to me you're trying to change it on a 'lower level' when you should just do it through GNOME's interface.

nomadrouge · 2010-06-18 01:28:20

Anikom15 wrote:

This ugly, black, pixilated default pointer is my favorite you whining little brat.

Sorry if I offended you.

anonymous_user wrote:

Try using this to change your cursor:
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=36585
gnome-fix -c [cursor name]

This one worked, thank you for your time and input to the both of you.

Anikom15 · 2010-06-18 01:33:55

nomadrouge wrote:

...
Sorry if I offended you.
...

Finally, a real gentleman in these forums. I'm curious about this issue. Any links to information as to what is going on? If this is a known issue, shouldn't it be in the wiki?

nomadrouge · 2010-06-18 02:12:53

Anikom15 wrote:

nomadrouge wrote:
...
Sorry if I offended you.
...
Finally, a real gentleman in these forums. I'm curious about this issue. Any links to information as to what is going on? If this is a known issue, shouldn't it be in the wiki?

Thanks for the compliment and I reciprocate that sentiment. However, I had not found anything at all regarding this issue. The only reason I came here is because I had finally given up with my extensive search. I took some time to check through the gnome-fix executable to see as how it fixed it, and it basically had a comprehensive editing of changing the cursor. I really don't know why doing the same thing manually did not work for me, but at least it works now.

But how it works is actually still a problem that I'm just choosing to ignore to save myself a headache. Instead of having the default pointer as the one for most applications, even if I try to change it using gnome's appearance editor it does not work except in Firefox and OpenOffice windows. I have to use this application to change it for all other applications. It really is mind boggling but I am choosing to ignore that fact for now and running this neat little program to change my mouse, which rarely happens, this is just a new installation.

Here is the code for that gnome-fixer program:

#! /bin/bash
#Script by Superandrex
case "$1" in
    -h) cat /usr/share/gnome-fix/gnome-fix-help;;
    -c){
    for nomefile in `ls -l /usr/share/icons/ | awk {'print $9'}`; do
        if [ $nomefile == $2 ]; then
            sudo mkdir /usr/share/icons/default 2>/dev/null
            echo "[Icon Theme]" > index.theme
            echo "Inherits=$nomefile" >> index.theme
            chmod +x index.theme
            sudo mv index.theme /usr/share/icons/default
            echo "Reboot Gnome"
            exit
        fi
    done
    for nomefile in `ls -l $HOME/.icons/ | awk {'print $9'}`; do
        if [ $nomefile == $2 ]; then
            sudo cp -r $HOME/.icons/$nomefile /usr/share/icons/
            sudo mkdir /usr/share/icons/default 2>/dev/null
            echo "[Icon Theme]" > index.theme
            echo "Inherits=$nomefile" >> index.theme
            chmod +x index.theme
            sudo mv index.theme /usr/share/icons/default
            echo "Reboot Gnome"
            exit
        fi
    done
    echo "Warning! Cursor name not match or non-existent"
    };;
    -b){
    sudo mv /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg.original
    sudo cp $2 /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg
           sudo chmod +r /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg
    };;
    -r){
    sudo rm -r /usr/share/icons/default
    sudo mv /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg.original /usr/share/pixmaps/backgrounds/gnome/background-default.jpg
    echo "Reboot Gnome"
    };;
    *){
    echo "wrong option"
    echo ""gnome-fix -h" for help"
    }
esac
exit

jeslinmx · 2010-12-06 14:13:41

hmm. that issue seems to still be there for my computer. if it is the same for anyone else maybe it should be added to the gnome wiki page as a temporary workaround.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-18 01:13:49

Changing the cursor in GNOME

#2 2010-06-18 01:22:38

Re: Changing the cursor in GNOME

#3 2010-06-18 01:25:56

Re: Changing the cursor in GNOME

#4 2010-06-18 01:28:20

Re: Changing the cursor in GNOME

#5 2010-06-18 01:33:55

Re: Changing the cursor in GNOME

#6 2010-06-18 02:12:53

Re: Changing the cursor in GNOME

#7 2010-12-06 14:13:41

Re: Changing the cursor in GNOME

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