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Topic: help required with cursors for slideshow box

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AutoMattOn Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: Feb. 2005

Posted: Mar. 19 2008,20:31

hello all,

how do i edit the cursors in DSL?

I ask because i am trying to make a kiosk machine with no ornamentation/chrome/cursor as part of a server/kiosk setup for a student art project. i have been playing around with modifying boothbox and have succeeded in removing the all firefox chrome using a mix of these instructions:

Boothkiosk how-to

Matt's tech blog

however the cursor remains in the middle of the screen

points to bear in mind:

i'm working mostly in windows. i use DSL in a VM but i'm not a linux or programming expert by any means, although i'm quite good at manipulating readable scripts (ie python, php, js, xml, stuff like that).

i don't know how to open the KNOPPIX file in windows. none of my unzipping progs will let me in to edit it. (i dont fancy wading through 70Mb of code in a hex editor either, not without a guide). i've figured out that it's something to do with 'X' and had a browse of the filesystem *in* DSL but i'm expecting a folder of cursor icons somewhere near X (like in KNOPPIX/etc/X11... ?) but i can't find one.

OR

is there a way to add a line to .xinitrc that tells X to hide the cursor if it's not in use after 5mins perhaps?

i'm doing this 'offline', editing files in an ISO image so the invisible cursor instructions in the how to above are a bit beyond me at the moment

any tips on where to look or how to edit the relevant files would be most welcome

(i'm not modifying any of the DSL start up screens, and i'm going to give full credit to all the various entities who have contributed directly or indirectly , eg ubuntu, apache, php, DSL, booth, etc.)

server half of project will be on and off here, i'll post back when it's up full time:

the Pressure

cheers in advance

M@

lucky13

Group: Members
Posts: 1478
Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: Mar. 19 2008,21:09

You can set your cursor with xsetroot. You could just touch an empty file called "cursor.xpm" in your home directory ($ touch ~/cursor.xpm). Then add a line in your xinitrc like:

Code Sample

xsetroot -cursor ~/cursor.xpm &

If you don't want any ornamentation or window dressing, consider using ratpoison (version available in MyDSL). It's much lower resource than fluxbox, a little less than jwm. No menus, no borders, nothing. Just whatever you're running opened to max screen by default. Then edit your xinitrc so it loads firefox or whatever you're using and set up a ratpoisonrc with the "banish" command to hide the cursor.

Or all the above.

--------------
"It felt kind of like having a pitbull terrier on my rear end."
-- meo (copyright(c)2008, all rights reserved)

AutoMattOn Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: Feb. 2005

Posted: Mar. 20 2008,01:11

already experimented with xsetroot -cursor and -cursorname but they only change the pointer while it's over the root window/desktop background. once firefox starts it goes straight back to being a little arrow

ratpoison: good batting thinkman, but the booth cd has already got so much work put in and my current iso is so close that i'm trying to avoid re-inventing the wheel at this point. also not sure how to remaster DSL

is there a banish or hide option for xfree86? or a -nomouse switch? i've also been looking at trying to re-position the pointer using an xwarppointer command in xinitrc but either the package has been removed from the booth distro or i'm doing the command wrong (entirely possible)

i've also thought about remastering the distro with the mouse device set to void after reading about that as an option but that means finding something to open the KNOPPIX file with, which if i could do, i'd be in there like a whippet editing the cursors.pcf (although, bearing in mind the way xsetroot works, it might be using a different cursor icon entirely when the pointers over firefox)

i suppose what i could be asking is has anyone made a chromeless, mouseless DSL/firefox distro of their own and do they feel like sharing it? (although i'd rather know how it's done. writing a report that says 'some dude on the intertubes sent it to me' kind of looks bad...)

I'm also asking how do i get into/edit the contents of the KNOPPIX folder? i know it's a folder from looking at the folder structure of DSL but windows just sees a file with no extension

mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Mar. 20 2008,01:29

It is true that xsetroot changes the cursor only for the root window.

You might look into the program unclutter for hiding the cursor whenever you like.

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http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

3 replies since Mar. 19 2008,20:31

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