How do I cange the X Cursor?


Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: How do I cange the X Cursor?
started by: fastmonkeywheels

Posted by fastmonkeywheels on Jan. 05 2007,06:00
I'm using DSL-N for a kiosk project.  I had originally built the entire system using Debian, but last minute changes required me to build the thing read-only.  I've been remastering DSL-N just fine so far.  I'm using a custom 2.6.15.7 kernel w/bootsplash, touchscreen, etc.  It's all working just fine, and boots 10x faster than the Debian system did.  

For the Debian system I had made a custom cursor set that I put under /usr/lib/X11/icons/, there is no such directory here.  Oh, I have XFree86 installed too.  I made the directory structure and the defaults directory with the index.theme file.  My cursor set still isn't being used.  I also tried putting making a .icons directory in my home directory, still nothing.  

The basic system is just running X and mozilla (seamonkey), the mozilla window is full screen so the only thing seen is a web page that was designed to be operated by the touchscreen.  My custom cursor set is just a bunch of empty cursors that make the cursor invisible.  

Does anyone know what I need to do to get X to recognize my cursors under DSL-N?

Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 05 2007,15:58
This has been brought up before, and as far as I can recall no one has posted anything about successfully installing cursor themes on DSL.

You can, however, change the root cursor with the xsetroot command. Default DSL uses cursor fonts (single file) instead of multi-file cursor packages.

If you're just looking for a way to hide the cursor, you can replace the default cursor font with a blank bitmap. I don't have the links on hand, but a google.com/linux search will get you the info you need.

Posted by fastmonkeywheels on Jan. 05 2007,19:52
Well, I found a solution, kind of.  The root cursor font is located in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/cursor.pcf.gz

On my host Debian system I installed decurs from < http://varg.dyndns.org/psi/pub/code/decurs >

I just installed the unstable/sid deb he provided and a template cursor.bdf file.  I went through and changed all the cursor images to just a single pixel (not invisible but good enough).  I saved the file as cursor.bdf and converted it to a pcf with bdftopcf

bdftopcf -o cursor.pcf cursor.bdf

then I gziped the pcf file

gzip cursor.pcf

and moved the new cursor.pcf.gz to replace the original.  With this procedure anyone can change their own cursors.

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