Changing the mouse cursor size [SOLVED]

Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

My mouse cursor has suddenly changed size. I think that what happened is that a couple of day's ago I update xorg, and it overwrote some config file, and only now that I've restarted X the changes have become apparent.
The problem is that when I log in, at first my cursor seems fine. When I start a program there are 2 things that may happen: 1) Program starts, cursor stays the same size, or 2) Program starts in background (cursor changes to "waiting" cursor (a clock)), then the program starts and my cursor has suddenly grown by a factor 2. It then stays like this for the rest of my session, until I logout/login.

I've had a similar problem before, and I managed to solve it after a long google search, but unfortunately I can't find anything this time, so that's why I'm asking here.
This is what I have in my .Xdefaults:

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

the BBC comes up trumps here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/linux/seeing/pointer/enlarging/gnome.shtml
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

thank you for pointing out gnome-mouse-properties, which I already tried and which does not solve my problem.
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cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

great, more repeating of information already mentioned in the initial post.
Look, even if gnome-mouse-properties worked, I probably wouldn't use it, as it allows you only 3 choices:
1) Too small,
2) Too big,
3) Huge
great app...
And then there's gcursor, which at least let's you specify a size in pixels, even if that is ignored by X.

Some other observation then:
Why do I need to log in/out/in/etc just to change the size of my cursor? Clearly X doesn't mind changing cursor sizes on the fly. Everything in Gnome is instant-apply, Why not so with cursor size?!

ps. cokehabit, I don't want to offend you personally, I just find it rather pointless to react to a thread if you
a) don't bother to read the initial post, so you understand the nature of a problem (your first post)
b) post just to post. (your second post). You see, if my system were working properly, then I wouldn't need to be asking for help or would I?
Since you seem to be on a winning streak right now, would you please inform me as to what exactly is wrong with my system, and how to fix it?
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ecatmur · Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 2:38 am Post subject:

Mouse cursor is instant-apply - and gives you all the options gcursor does - if you're using Gnome 2.12.
Nah nah.
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thaswiftness · n00b Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 34 Location: Florida

I had the same problem with the whiteglass theme. Never could figure out why. So I changed themes to Lil' Polar from gnome-look.org and haven't been troubled since.

Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

Unfortunately I'm not using Gnome 2.12 (at least not until it's stable in portage)
I know I fixed this before, and I'm 90% sure it had something to do with /usr/share/cursors/xorg-x11/default/index.theme.
why O why is there no documentation on this sort of thing?
All google can come up with is a years old story of a dude who hacked X for his disabled classmate so it would do Big cursors. Very cool, but not very helpfull.
Is there not some man page or hidden documentation page on X.org that details all these 'mystical files'?

--edit
I also use the Whiteglass theme, and (as I said before) had this problem before, but managed to solve it. I just can't remember/find HOW I did it.

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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

(secretly hidden early bump)

I just noticed something totally odd:
The last change I made with gcursor was changing my cursor to 'gentoo' (the ugly purple triangle), size 16, which didn't do diddly squad.
Or so I thought! As it seems there are SOME occasions when I do have this purple cursor instead of the whiteglass cursor:
When in firefox, if my mouse moves over a flash animation, it changes to the gentoo cursor, and also in amsn (a TCL application) the cursor get the gentoo theme.
Further, when it is the purple triangle, it has the right size (16px), and as soon as it moves off the app/flash it's once more the whiteglass theme, size 24px.
Are there per application(type) cursor settings?
How do cursor sizes work?
And most importantly: where are these settings stored?
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"Man fears the darkness, and so he scrapes away at the edges of it with fire."
- Rei Ayanami

JGBE, a Java based GameBoy Emulator

amne · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 11:16 pm Post subject:

Please use common sense and stop building a post pyramid by bumping your thread every 12 hours.
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20087

I took the liberty of deleting your extraneous bumps. Once in any give 24hour period is considered appropriate.

What is the output of: echo $XCURSOR_SIZE ?

Do you have any cursor configurations in ~/.icons/<subdirs>?

I've experienced some similar issues as you've described in your "secretly hidden early bump" post with the purple and correct size. I've not solved it yet, but it only happens with one window, so I don't notice it often.
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

ecatmur · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:13 am Post subject:

Cursor configuration can be in ~/.icons/default/index.theme.
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

There is no ~/.icons/default/index.theme (the 'default' directory does not exist), and I couldn't find anything related to cursor size in other index.theme files.
What should I look for in an index.theme file? There is alot of 'size:' entries, but none seem linked to cursors.

also, when I comment out "Inherits=whiteglass' from /usr/share/cursors/xorg-x11/default/index.theme, the cursor is as it should be, 16px, only the standard black&white X cursor.
When I just start gnome, the whiteglass cursor is also 16px, but as soon as an action changes the cursor shape (start a program, cursor becomes a clock) the size also changes, namely to 24px!
I have created a ~/.Xresources file (actually a symlink to ~/.Xdefaults) which has

ecatmur · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:47 pm Post subject:

OK, don't know if this'll change anything, bu you should have Inherits=core in /usr/share/cursors/xorg-x11/default/index.theme; set up the site cursor in /usr/local/share/cursors/xorg-x11/default/index.theme.

Other than that - what settings do you have in gconf under /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/? Could be gnome-settings-daemon conflicting with another setting.

(Seriously - try gnome 2.12 - it's lovely! You can set the cursor theme and size in a capplet; so much nicer...)
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

ecatmur · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:02 pm Post subject:

Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

I'm sorry, I misread the 'local' part.
I didn't have a /usr/local/share/cursors directory, so I created one
(and appropriate subdirs) and made the changes you suggested.
The effects are quite interesting:
Parts of apps have the whiteglass cursor, others core. Example: firefox overall is whiteglass, hyperlinks etc are core. Window titles are whiteglass, inside of gnome-terminal is core. The whiteglass theme starts out, as usual, small. After opening a program it, as usual, 'resizes' to 24px. Now the really fun part:
When hovering over a app part with whiteglass theme, cursor is 24px, move the mouse over a core part, cursor is 16px.

--edit
Now it gets really weird: after another login/logout, I'm now unable to reproduce the effect described above

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ecatmur · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:17 pm Post subject:

Try reducing the cursor size in gconf:
$ gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/cursor_size -t int 8

I'm just thrashing here; could it maybe be related to dpi? I have a gconf cursor size of 24 with the gentoo theme and it looks sensible, but with whiteglass ithe cursor is far too big (tho 16 is just right, so...)
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

It still doesn't work. There is a really weird pattern emerging now though:

ecatmur · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:01 pm Post subject:

What about other users?
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

I've created a new user 'test'
Both 'test' and 'root' have the exact same behaviour as my own account.
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- Rei Ayanami

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ecatmur · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:29 pm Post subject:

OK, I'm utterly stumped. Sorry...
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Da Fox · Guru Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 341

any more ideas?
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"Man fears the darkness, and so he scrapes away at the edges of it with fire."
- Rei Ayanami

JGBE, a Java based GameBoy Emulator