Cursor themes

Introduction

There are many cursor themes available for the X11 Windowing System besides the default black pointer. This guide will instruct you on where to get them, installing them, and configuring them.

Getting Mouse Cursor Themes

Here are links to where you may download cursor:

• KDE Look
• Freshmeat
• Customize.org

Also, some themes available through AUR

Note: That X already comes with the 'redglass' and 'whiteglass' themes in Template:Filename

Installing Mouse Cursor Themes

Extract the cursor theme package:

$ tar -zxvf foobar-cursor-theme-package-foo.tar.gz

or

$ tar -jxvf foobar-cursor-theme-package-foo.tar.bz2

Make a directory for the cursor theme:

Example: FooBar-AweSoMe-Cursors-v2.98beta

User-specific installation:

$ mkdir -p ~/.icons/foobar/cursors

System-wide installation:

# mkdir -p /usr/share/icons/foobar/cursors

Note: To simplify the name of the theme, the name being used is 'foobar' instead of 'FooBar-AweSoMe-Cursors-v2.98beta' when creating the dir(s) above.

Copy cursor files into the appropriate directory:

User-specific installation:

$ cp -a FooBar-AweSoMe-Cursors-v2.98beta/cursors/* ~/.icons/foobar/cursors/

System-wide installation:

# cp -a FooBar-AweSoMe-Cursors-v2.98beta/cursors/* /usr/share/icons/foobar/cursors/

If the package includes index.theme file check if there is an "Inherits" line inside. If yes, check whether the inherited theme also exists under this name in your system (rename if needed).

Copy index.theme file into the appropriate directory:

User-specific installation:

$ cp -a FooBar-AweSoMe-Cursors-v2.98beta/index.theme ~/.icons/foobar/index.theme

System-wide installation:

# cp -a FooBar-AweSoMe-Cursors-v2.98beta/index.theme /usr/share/icons/foobar/index.theme

If the package doesn't have index.theme or if it doesn't include an "Inherits" line you don't have to copy this file.

Create links to missing cursors:

Applications may keep using the default X11 cursors when a theme lacks some cursors. If you experience this, it can be corrected by adding links to the missing cursors. For example:

$ cd ~/.icons/foobar/cursors/
$ ln -s right_ptr arrow
$ ln -s cross crosshair
$ ln -s right_ptr draft_large
$ ln -s right_ptr draft_small
$ ln -s cross plus
$ ln -s left_ptr top_left_arrow
$ ln -s cross tcross
$ ln -s hand hand1
$ ln -s hand hand2
$ ln -s left_side left_tee
$ ln -s left_ptr ul_angle
$ ln -s left_ptr ur_angle
$ ln -s left_ptr_watch 08e8e1c95fe2fc01f976f1e063a24ccd

If the above links don't resolve the problem, look in Template:Filename for additional cursors your theme may be missing, and create links for them as well.

Configuring Cursor Themes

To locally change a cursor theme, add this line to your Template:Filename:

Xcursor.theme: foobar

Note: Make sure the file Template:Filename is called by your window manager. You can force it to get loaded by running '$ xrdb ~/.Xdefaults' before loading your window manager (for example from Template:Filename if you use startx). Refer to your window manager documentation for details.

Alternatively, you can create a symlink "default" in Template:Filename, which should points to your installed cursor theme:

$ ln -s /usr/share/icons/foobar/ ~/.icons/default

If you rather want to change the cursor globally (e.g. used by graphical login managers like kdm, gdm, ...), or if you experience problems with above method (for example in Firefox), create the Template:Filename directory (only if needed):

# mkdir -p /usr/share/icons/default  (only if needed)

Edit or create the Template:Filename file and add the following:

 [icon theme] 
Inherits=foobar

Or if you have/want your cursor themes in ~/.icons only. Create the Template:Filename directory:

$ mkdir -p ~/.icons/default

And create the Template:Filename file with the same contents as above Template:Filename.

You can optionally add this line to Template:Filename if your cursor theme supports multiple sizes:

Xcursor.size:  32       #  32, 48 or 64 are probably good values

If you don't know about supported cursor sizes just start X without this setting and let it choose the cursor size automatically.

More information

For more information about cursors in X (supported directories, formats, compatibility, etc.) refer to the man page:

$ man Xcursor

Note: If the animations are flickering on your nvidia card, add the following line to your Template:Filename file, into the nvidia device section, to fix it:

Option "HWCursor" "off"

Enjoy!

WikiMigration--dlanor 13:33, 23 Jul 2005 (EDT)