Description: Ways to install cursors have been unhelpful as always with Linux, it's proggies and the sparse documentation you get with any package. I am on Slackware 10 and for some reason I have to install cursors globally so if you are like me then this is for you!
First get the icon theme and if it's folder do as root.
$tar -zxvf cursortheme.tgz /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/ && cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/
all that should extract the cursor folder to that directory and then you should be in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/ and see the folder you just placed there. Also you will see index.theme. cat index.theme Default will look like this:
[Icon Theme] Inherits=core
You don't want that ugly default theme. So lets say the folder you just extracted is Grounation (nice look). Then open up index.theme in your fav editor and place the name of whatever cursor folder you have there. Eg.
[Icon Theme] Inherits=Grounation
log out and log back in and voila. Warning: this will replace cursors system wide. I do this way because crappy other ways in my ~/.icons/default do not work!
Btw, this is for Gnome and other stuff. KDE has easy to use configuration in kcontrol to change cursor.
For GNOME, just put it in ~/.icons. Select Mouse in the Preferences menu and when the window pops up select the Cursors tab. It should be there next to the default cursor theme.
If the default hand cursor appears regardless of the cursor theme, you might fix this by adding the line below in your ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals in the "General" section:
handCursorStyle=NotWindows
Actually, you might set this value to anything but "Windows".
To install cursors in KDE if you use gentoo, you need to put the directory in
/usr/share/cursors/xorg-x11/
Create a directory with the name of the cursorset, and put the "cursors" directory in that directory. Be sure the cursors directory includes directly the cursor images.
That is how I do it. Now you can start KDE Control Center (dunno what it is called in English) and go to [pheripherals], [mouse], [cursors] and select your set.
I don't know it it's XFree86 or something is wrong with my Nvidia driver but my all the animated cursors keep on flicking. You have to pay close attention to see it flickering though. If I upgrade to X.org will that problem disappear?
Note: If the animations are flickering on your nvidia card with the latest
driver, add the following line to your XF86Config file, into the nvidia
device section, to fix it:
Option "HWCursor" "off"
|||from Silver XCursors 3D readme file|||
good luck.I dont know if it works .. :)
There's a really nice utility called gcursor that I use, I hope it gets integrated into the future Gnome theme selector.
http://qballcow.nl/?name=gcursor&css=0
Works fine for me under Debian Sid Gnome2.6, checkinstall will compile it and make it into a Debian package for ya. BTW, "checkinstall" is the best thing since peanut butter.
In Fedora Core 2, the default theme (BlueCurve) have folder (/usr/share/icon/BlueCurve/cursor) with a default cursor, to work the (/usr/share/icon/default) folder, and the cursors in general, I had to rename this folder in the BlueCurve theme for other name (for example: cursor2), and then the new cursors work fine with Gnome.
I could make the icon work from my home directory. Here is how I did (Slackware 9.1 - dropline)
- Untar the icon theme in ~/.icons/default directory.
- cp -R the cursors directory located in the newly created folder to the ~/.icons/default directory.
- Change the index.theme inherits to the name of your new theme.
- Restart X
chapeaurouge
http://madpenguin.org
Do you now have your cursortheme everywhere in X?
Because I have the problem that on KDE Desktop, I get the white hand when moving over a desktop icon, not the hand cursor of my mouse theme. Same with Windows-Resize cursors, I always get black arrows instead of the resize-cursors my theme has. And that is at all windows.
I even tried and changed index.theme in X11/icons to
[Icon Theme]
Inherits=whiteglass
but still it didn't use the whiteglass cursors on Desktop icons and windows borders.
Just in Mozilla I get the whiteglass hand cursor when moving the mouse over an url.
Don't know why it doesn't work.. :-(
I was having your problems too. Here's what I came up with:
If one chooses the cursor theme from Kcontrol they will find that some of the cursor theme's pointers like resize, wait and point does not work and display standart X cursors instead. For now the only workaround I've gound for this is to leave Control Centre alone and choose cursor themes manually. That is exactly as explained in howto. Don't select cursor themes from control centre module.
To add cursor theme system-wide, just copy your favourite theme (cursors dir) in default directory. Also put your index.theme file content of which is something like this
[Icon Theme]
Name=jimmac
Comment=My Personal Jimmac Cursors
Example=left_ptr
into the same default directory. Then copy this default directory to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/ . Don't mess with Kcontrol, just use this method to make your theme default for every account on system.
If you want to change the cursor theme, again modify the index.theme file and change the theme name in it to say, Silver, and copy your silver directory to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/.
Ratings & Comments
15 Comments
For GNOME, just put it in ~/.icons. Select Mouse in the Preferences menu and when the window pops up select the Cursors tab. It should be there next to the default cursor theme.
To be more precise, untar it inside ~/.icons.
If the default hand cursor appears regardless of the cursor theme, you might fix this by adding the line below in your ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals in the "General" section: handCursorStyle=NotWindows Actually, you might set this value to anything but "Windows".
To install cursors in KDE if you use gentoo, you need to put the directory in /usr/share/cursors/xorg-x11/ Create a directory with the name of the cursorset, and put the "cursors" directory in that directory. Be sure the cursors directory includes directly the cursor images. That is how I do it. Now you can start KDE Control Center (dunno what it is called in English) and go to [pheripherals], [mouse], [cursors] and select your set.
too bad this is gnome-look and not kde-look :P
So true..
I don't know it it's XFree86 or something is wrong with my Nvidia driver but my all the animated cursors keep on flicking. You have to pay close attention to see it flickering though. If I upgrade to X.org will that problem disappear?
Note: If the animations are flickering on your nvidia card with the latest driver, add the following line to your XF86Config file, into the nvidia device section, to fix it: Option "HWCursor" "off" |||from Silver XCursors 3D readme file||| good luck.I dont know if it works .. :)
There's a really nice utility called gcursor that I use, I hope it gets integrated into the future Gnome theme selector. http://qballcow.nl/?name=gcursor&css=0 Works fine for me under Debian Sid Gnome2.6, checkinstall will compile it and make it into a Debian package for ya. BTW, "checkinstall" is the best thing since peanut butter.
In Fedora Core 2, the default theme (BlueCurve) have folder (/usr/share/icon/BlueCurve/cursor) with a default cursor, to work the (/usr/share/icon/default) folder, and the cursors in general, I had to rename this folder in the BlueCurve theme for other name (for example: cursor2), and then the new cursors work fine with Gnome.
I could make the icon work from my home directory. Here is how I did (Slackware 9.1 - dropline) - Untar the icon theme in ~/.icons/default directory. - cp -R the cursors directory located in the newly created folder to the ~/.icons/default directory. - Change the index.theme inherits to the name of your new theme. - Restart X chapeaurouge http://madpenguin.org
Do you now have your cursortheme everywhere in X? Because I have the problem that on KDE Desktop, I get the white hand when moving over a desktop icon, not the hand cursor of my mouse theme. Same with Windows-Resize cursors, I always get black arrows instead of the resize-cursors my theme has. And that is at all windows. I even tried and changed index.theme in X11/icons to [Icon Theme] Inherits=whiteglass but still it didn't use the whiteglass cursors on Desktop icons and windows borders. Just in Mozilla I get the whiteglass hand cursor when moving the mouse over an url. Don't know why it doesn't work.. :-(
Try to use /usr/share/icons instead /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/ .
I was having your problems too. Here's what I came up with: If one chooses the cursor theme from Kcontrol they will find that some of the cursor theme's pointers like resize, wait and point does not work and display standart X cursors instead. For now the only workaround I've gound for this is to leave Control Centre alone and choose cursor themes manually. That is exactly as explained in howto. Don't select cursor themes from control centre module. To add cursor theme system-wide, just copy your favourite theme (cursors dir) in default directory. Also put your index.theme file content of which is something like this [Icon Theme] Name=jimmac Comment=My Personal Jimmac Cursors Example=left_ptr into the same default directory. Then copy this default directory to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/ . Don't mess with Kcontrol, just use this method to make your theme default for every account on system. If you want to change the cursor theme, again modify the index.theme file and change the theme name in it to say, Silver, and copy your silver directory to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/.
Very nice, thank you. Works whit all distros ?