Highlighting the mouse pointer

[Member Wallon]

Dear users,

As I have 2 screens, I sometimes can’t find my mouse pointer.

In Windows, you press the “CTRL” key and a big circle lights up the mouse pointer. This also exists for Gnome, Linux Mint…
For antiX, there is no such function and I miss it a lot.
I found on a Github site, a tool that allows to do more or less the same thing.
https://github.com/swillner/highlight-pointer

I followed the procedure,
– downloaded the latest version,
– installed the 4 packages (libx11-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev)
– used the “make” command

Every time I type the command “highlight-pointer” in a terminal, I get this response:
bash: hightlight-pointer: command not found

Is this program not compatible with antiX?

Best regards,
Wallon

[Moderator BobC]

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The program called “highlight-pointer” must be marked with executable permissions, and must also be located in a folder (or directory) that is in your $PATH when it runs.

If all the locations in your $PATH are restricted by root authority, you will need to use sudo to copy the program there.

[Member ile]

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Hello Wallon and BobC
Straight-up cheating; it is borrowed from xfce /usr/bin/
xfce4-find-cursor
Put a copy of that file into antiX /usr/bin/
and it shows a red circle with command
<xfce4-find-cursor>
that made keybind Control+Alt+m
(?)

[Member Wallon]

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Thanks to both of you,

I copied the “highlight-pointer” file to the /usr/bin/ directory

I put the command below in my startup file (Reminder to get there, Favorite applications, control centre, session, user session desktop, startup tab)

Command in the startup file;

highlight-pointer --show-cursor --outline 2 --radius 40 --auto-hide-highlight --hide-timeout 1 &

Best regards,
Wallon

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Wallon.

Attachments:

1. 

   screenshot.jpg
   

[Member PPC]

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I never thought about using that funcionality, that I never even knew existed ( I usually just drag the mouse to one way and the other, until I see it)- but it may be handy, specially for people with vision problems… Why not post here the compressed xfce4-find-cursor executable file as an attachment, so people can easily use it, without having to install xfce (or search trough all it’s .debs to extract the needed file)?

Thanks in advance,

P.

[Member oops]

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… Maybe you can also change the icewm.xpm cursors (into white color, like the tin one)

(Put the cursors directory to /home/MyUser/.icewm/cursors/ … and restart IceWM)

Attachments:

1. home_user_.icewm_cursors-1.zip

[Member Rantanplan]

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Hi all,

below xfce4-find-cursor file in a zipfile.
Extract it, make it executable and place it under /usr/bin.
Then, to find the pointer, in a terminal type :
xfce4-find-cursor
then hit Enter and see .jpg file.

I’m not smart enough to associate a combination of keys.
But maybe we need another executable ?
I don’t know.

Best to you.

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Rantanplan.
• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Rantanplan.

Attachments:

1. 

   xfce-find-cursor.jpg
   

1. xfce4-find-cursor.zip

Vive antiX !
Vive le Groland !

[Member PPC]

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Thanks, but the attachment must have been blocked by the forum software- please try renaming the extension to merely “.zip” instead of “.tar.gz.”

Edit: one way to summon the application using key binding, no extra application is needed- If you are using icewm (adapt for other window managers):

menu > Control Centre > Icewm … > “Keys” tab – add or edit a line including the desired key combo and the path to your script (or just the script, if it’s in your path)

example:

key "Alt+Ctrl+M" [name_of_executable]

Save the changes to the config file and restart icewm

In this example the key combo: Alt + Ctrl + M will summon the executable.

Edit 2: I just found that Firefox includes a key combo to display a page in “mobile” mode, mimicking the screen of a smartphone. Guess what key binding does that… 🙂

P.

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 6 months ago by PPC.

[Member Rantanplan]

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Done

and a little tips :
rename xfce4-find-cursor with a shortname : in french, i propose “ou”, in english or portuguese choice what you want.
It’s more practice.

Thank you for the how-to declare a shortcut, I applied your example and it’s ok : bravo PPC.

thanks 🙂

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Rantanplan.
• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Rantanplan.
• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Rantanplan.

Vive antiX !
Vive le Groland !

[Member ile]

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Hi Wallon, yours is configurable; that is nice. congratulations.
PPC, I have never seen the file. just moved it into place copy, drag and drop.
zipped it. does it unzip ? , not unmarked as executable.
put it into /usr/bin is where taken from in mx. Control+Alt+m is the xfce keybind and is available in icewm and fluxbox keys.
a different size than Rantanplan’13K, so again send zip xfce4-find-cursor18K
it is /xfce4-find-cursor.

Attachments:

1. xfce4-find-cursor18K.zip

[Member Wallon]

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To all,

If you know of another application or script in antiX, I don’t see any problem with it.

In my office, as we all have 3 screens of 27″ and 32″, it is impossible for the eyes to look at all 3 screens at the same time. This function is automatically activated on all Windows PCs. There is also a similar option on Appel PCs.

This is not a gimmick for people who no longer have good eyesight. This option is considered a working tool (like the calculator for accountants…)

Thank you all for your research and support. I find this really constructive for the antiX community.

I really think this should be on the antiX iso.

Best regards,
Wallon

[Member PPC]

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@ile – yes your executable worked, and the previous one did not- I’m already running it with the ctrl + alt + m key combo, under icewm- just for testing porposes.

@Wallon – you can contact anticapitalista and do a “sales pitch” to include this executable (and eventually some keybinding to launch it) in default antiX – I personally have no real need for it, but it’s a tiny 18k executable and it does add some value to antiX – in my view, people should have easily available all features that are present on other OS’s, as long as that does not impact in the usage of system resources (RAM and CPU, a tiny bit of hard disk space is always needed, of course).

With this tiny addiction, antiX is even more on parity to OS that run a full blown Desktop Environment.- this, combined with the “tiling” features in icewm and soon, the “drag to other workspace” feature that BobC is testing, will be great addictions- a couple of years ago I would not think that our Window Managers would keep evolving this way!

P.

[Member Wallon]

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Dear Rantanplan,

I have extracted the file.
With zzzfm, I clicked on the 3 levels that the file was executable.
I copied the file to /usr/bin
I rebooted the PC
I type in a terminal: xfce4-find-cursor

I get this response from the terminal;

$ xfce4-find-cursor
xfce4-find-cursor: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-3.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

What should I do?

Kind regards,
Wallon

[Member Wallon]

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I didn’t understand that I had to use the ile file.

Now everything works fine in IceWM and in FluxBox/FT10.

I renamed the file “xfc4-find-cursor” to “ou” (=”where” in English)

I give here the keyboard shortcut for Fluxbox/FT10
menu > Control Centre > Fluxbox … > “Keys” tab – add at the end of the file the following command for the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+m

!Highlight mouse pointer
Control Mod1 m :ExecCommand ou

It’s beautiful and very practical

[Member Rantanplan]

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Good evening @Wallon,

Sorry for the late reply.

For xfce4-find-cursor, you have to unzip in /usr/bin and make it executable as you did.

Next, the CPP (see here) procedure must be followed.

My environment is rox-icewm with antiX 21 in Live-USB.

But, I arrive a little late with my explanations.
And I don’t understand why “mine” didn’t run.
So good that ile’s file correctly works : that’s super.

Good evening.

PS: the renaming to “ou” was proposed because I did not know how to declare the keyboard shortcut.

================en français===================
Bonsoir @Wallon,

pour xfce4-find-cursor, il faut décompresser dans /usr/bin et le rendre exécutable comme tu l’as fait.
Ensuite, il faut suivre la procédure de PPC (voir ici).
Mon environnement est rox-icewm avec antiX 21 en Live-USB.
Mais, j’arrive un peu tard avec mes explications.
Et, je ne comprends pas pourquoi le “mien” n’a pas fonctionné.
Le principal est que celui fournit par ile fonctionne bien : super.

PS : le renommage en “ou” était proposé parce que je ne savais pas déclarer le raccourci clavier. Mince !

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by Rantanplan.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by Rantanplan.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by Rantanplan.

Vive antiX !
Vive le Groland !

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