cursor changing in certain apps

Discussion in 'Linux - General discussion' started by SamOliver, Dec 6, 2010.

  1. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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    whenever i use an animated cursor it flickers and jumps around, so i changed to a static one, but whenever i hover my cursor over certain applications it reverts back to the old animated cursor and flickers again. does anyone know of a way that i can either stop the cursor from changing, or to allow me to use animated cursors without the flickering?
     
  2. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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    also, i'm running ubuntu on a mac with parallels, if that helps
     
  3. ps355528

    ps355528 Active member

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    thats your problem.. what desktop are you using?
     
  4. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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  5. ps355528

    ps355528 Active member

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    ok .. it's not as easy as you think.. obviously different running programs are trying to set different cursor properties.. which you need to stop. Couple of ways to achieve that (which I have never seen tbh .. gnome works well on reasonable hardware) .. one is to remove the animated cursors, the other is to lock only one in use....

    http://library.gnome.org/devel/gdk/stable/gdk-Cursors.html

    https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=862577

    The second links to a package.. suggest having a read of the package contents and see what it actually does with regards to cursors.
     
  6. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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    I appreciate your help, and I'm sorry for being such a noob, but I don't know what to to with the package after I download and save it. I typed "gnome-fix -c [cursor name]" in the terminal. What was I supposed to do?
     
  7. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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    Someone suggested this also:

    to change the default theme (this will also affect the GDM login screen), edit the file /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme. under [Icon Theme], change the Name setting to the name that appears in the Appearance menu. Not sure if it's necessary, but I also changed the Inherits value to the folder of the theme in the /usr/share/icons directory. Here's my index.theme Icon section.

    [Icon Theme]
    Name = DMZ (White)
    Comment = Nice White Theme
    Inherits = DMZ-White


    If that would work, how do I edit "index.theme"?
     
  8. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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    I gave myself administrative permissions to change that index.theme file, and that didn't work. I've been having a lot of other problems too, such as not being able to use the keyboard in certain apps (and the app quitting when I try to) and not being able to use the mouse... Basically all the fundamental functions of a computer, lol. Could have something to do with parallels? I dunno, but I'm just gonna install a KDE desktop to get my feet wet with Linux, most people think KDE is better for beginners anyway.
     
  9. ps355528

    ps355528 Active member

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    I think thats the problem.. parallels..

    Personally I really don't like kde, but that's most likely because I'm not familiar with it.. plus it makes the big mistake of having the file manager also a browser.. yuck.. .. I prefer xfce4.

    firstly tho.. it seems like a general window manager bug rather than anything you will find to be desktop specific .. give this a shot (I leave my cursors alone so long as they work)

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=156022

    some other suggestions.. I don't run things emulated (except old consoles)

    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=3212

    I get a feeling restarting the gnome desktop might work ..

    then again.. maybe installing kde (but still running gnome) might allow you to kill the random cursor bug .. http://askubuntu.com/questions/12816/running-gnome-different-cursor-in-kate
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2010
  10. SamOliver

    SamOliver Member

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    I just got rid of Ubuntu altogether because I installed Linux Mint and liked it better. I didn't have any of these problems with it either. I also installed Kubuntu and I think I prefer gnome to kde as well. What distribution of xfce do you recommend? I'll try xfce and install either that or Linux Mint, depending on which I like best, via bootcamp so it's not being emulated.
     
  11. ps355528

    ps355528 Active member

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    xfce is just a desktop manager .. it's slimline.

    Mint and xubuntu are both debian based so switching desktops should be as easy as installing from repositories.

    http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/xfce.htm

    check your distro forums for any specific instructions related to xfce4 on your chosen OS
     

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