- This topic has 13 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Apr 21-8:07 pm by scruffyeagle.
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scruffyeagle
I’m having difficulty keeping track of the mouse pointer on the screen, because it’s so TINY. I just now measured it while set at its maximum size, and it’s only 3/16″ tall on my screen.
I have the impression that the pointer routines were developed on machines using a 800×600 display, or maybe even 480×360; got defined using specified absolute values of pixels – and, never changed after that.
I’m running a dual-boot setup on a Dell Precision M6300 laptop, with both Antix v21.4, & Win10 pro. Honestly, this mouse issue always makes it feel like a small relief when I switch back to Windows, despite all the shortcomings of Windows. (I can SEE again!)
This machine has a native resolution of 1920×1200, and I’ve already scaled it down to 1440×900.
I really don’t want to reduce the display any further than I’ve already done.Is there any solution to this TINY pointer problem, other than rescaling the display; i.e., a solution which actually increases the pointer size?
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Here’s the output from inxi -Fxxxrz:
System:
Kernel: 5.10.57-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: IceWM 2.9.6 vt: 7 dm: N/A
Distro: antiX-21_x64-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021
base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Machine:
Type: Portable System: Dell product: Precision M6300 v: N/A
serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 8 serial: <filter>
Mobo: Dell model: 0JM680 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A14
date: 12/06/2011
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 68.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 68.6/73.3 Wh (93.6%)
volts: 12.6 min: 11.1 model: PS2 DELL 00 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
status: Full
CPU:
Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo T7250 bits: 64 type: MCP
arch: Core Merom rev: D cache: L2: 2 MiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 bogomips: 7978
Speed: 2020 MHz min/max: 800/2001 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz):
1: 2020 2: 1695
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA G84GLM [Quadro FX 1600M] vendor: Dell driver: nouveau
v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:040d class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1400×900~60Hz s-dpi: 96
OpenGL: renderer: NV84 v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 82801H HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:284b class-ID: 0403
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.57-antix.1-amd64-smp running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5756ME Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
vendor: Dell driver: tg3 v: kernel port: df00 bus-ID: 09:00.0
chip-ID: 14e4:1674 class-ID: 0200
IF: eth1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
vendor: Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card driver: wl v: kernel port: df00
bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:4315 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan1 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Dell Wireless 360 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 6-2:2 chip-ID: 413c:8140 class-ID: fe01
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: running
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.2 TiB used: 6.73 GiB (0.5%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD3200BPVT-75JJ5T0
size: 298.09 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter>
rev: 1A03 scheme: MBR
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Western Digital
model: WD My Passport 0748 size: 931.48 GiB type: N/A serial: <filter>
rev: 1019 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 38.15 GiB used: 6.73 GiB (17.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 9.77 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 56.0 C mobo: N/A sodimm: SODIMM C gpu: nouveau
temp: 66.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
Packages: apt: 2022
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list
1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/antix/bullseye bullseye main nosystemd nonfree
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bullseye-backports.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
2: deb http://security.debian.org/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list
Info:
Processes: 173 Uptime: 1h 14m wakeups: 2 Memory: 3.84 GiB
used: 1.27 GiB (33.1%) Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5
Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 alt: 10 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 running-in: roxterm
inxi: 3.3.06
christophe
Check this out:
https://shallowsky.com/linux/x-cursor-themes.htmlThe beginning of the article:
Using and modifying X cursor themes for big and contrasty mouse cursors
Working in an office with lots of windows, I get a great view, but I often have trouble finding the mouse cursor. I needed larger, more contrasty mouse cursors.
I found that there isn’t a lot of documentation on how to change X cursors. So here’s what I’ve learned:
Big-cursorDebian has a package called big-cursor, so I tried that first. Installing it, and restarting X, made all the cursors much bigger. So far so good — except in a lot of cases they were really TOO big. I couldn’t see where I was pointing in apps like Firefox. And they were still just black and white, no more contrasty than before. Worse, it offers no way to enable or disable it easily. It simply replaces all the default cursors with larger version of themselves. Better than nothing, but I wasn’t satisfied. …..
I checked & made sure that the package “big-cursor” is still available. See if this is what you need. 🙂
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
I found & installed “big-cursor” via Synaptic Package Manager.
After rebooting, I see no change at all in the cursor. I also don’t see any new options in the mouse configuration utility.
Am I missing something here?
christophe
Can you adjust the mouse theme in “Customize Look And Feel” in Control Centre?
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
Thanks for the response.
I read the article, and really, a lot of it was way beyond me.But, it did teach me that I’m not alone in my struggles with the tiny cursors. And it also taught me what a tangled, unstandardized, complicated issue the pointers are in the Linux world.
I’m a little surprised, that in all the years of Linux, no programming guru has set their sights on fixing this shortcoming of desktop displays, as a worthy challenge of their abilities. I mean, they (the programmers) had to have been suffering right along with the rest of us, don’t you think?
Yes, I can select from a list of mouse themes, in the tab “Mouse cursor”.
But that tab doesn’t have any controls for size adjustments.The size adjustment is only on the “Mouse configuration” window, and its upper limit is 50 pixels – the same as it was before I installed “big-cursor”.
And yes, this is after rebooting.
- This reply was modified 1 year ago by scruffyeagle.
ModdIt
Please try using one of the BoBc themes, I use thinnest black and mouse cursor is fine on laptop.
1920 1280The cursor size is defined in theme as far as I am aware.
christophe
Please try using one of the BoBc themes, I use thinnest black and mouse cursor is fine on laptop.
1920 1280So changing the window manager theme looks like the best way to change the cursor size/contrast.
I reviewed the BobC icewm themes thread, and I see these are already included in antiX 21.- This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
Please try using one of the BoBc themes, I use thinnest black and mouse cursor is fine on laptop.
1920 1280The cursor size is defined in theme as far as I am aware.
Where are you finding the BoBC IceWM themes? I can’t find them.
- This reply was modified 1 year ago by scruffyeagle.
Please try using one of the BoBc themes, I use thinnest black and mouse cursor is fine on laptop.
1920 1280So changing the window manager theme looks like the best way to change the cursor size/contrast.
I reviewed the BobC icewm themes thread, and I see these are already included in antiX 21.I searched for the thread you mentioned, but I can’t find it.
PPC
Damn… you sure have many questions 🙂 (I’m not complaining, but I’ve been trying to answer forum questions and this is what, your third thread? Happy to see you are these deep into trying to use antiX 🙂 )
To test Moddit’s suggestion:
antiX Menu > Settings > Themes – and try some themes- Bob themes’s should be “antiX-Magic…”, but I’m unsure that will solve your problem. I use antiX on a screen with higher resolution than yours and have no problem with the mouse pointer size… Try changing window managers – try, for example, jwm and see if there’s any change…P.
Edit: I think I solved your problem: antiX Menu > Control Centre > Hardware > Mouse Settings >
Select the mouse size you want on the upper right part of this window, log off an log back on- I ended up with a gigantic mouse pointer here on my desktop… At least using fluxbox, it works,but I also noticed that the mouse pointer size changes inside application windows- like firefox, etc- it becomes smaller again- so it seems there may be conflicting mouse pointer settings… probably some gtk configuration. I duckduckgoed this and found some info, that you can try to implement, about gtk mouse configuration, here: https://shallowsky.com/linux/x-cursor-themes.html- This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.
- This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.
- This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.
Hi, PPC! Thank you for your reply.
Nope, neither of the suggestions worked.
I selected Antix-Magic-Huge4K, logged off & back on – the taskbar icons changed, but no change in cursor. Same with Antix-Magic-Large. So, I’m back where I started, with Clearview Blue Medium.
I reset the cursor size to 50, in Mouse Configuration, logged off & back on – and, that didn’t work either. No change in cursor size. Checking, I found that the size setting in the dialog box is still set at 50 despite the lack of change in the cursor.
caprea
One way could be to download a big cursor theme like this
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/999574
Extract it and then copy it to /usr/share/icons
It’s afterwards visible in control-centre > Customize Look and Feel > mouseHi, caprea! Thanks for the reply. It was helpful!
I dl’d the new “Large Cursors” theme, installed it, and rebooted.
I found that it IS helpful in LibreOffice, but most of the time it remains that eenie-weenie, itsty-bitsy, tiny cursor. It seems to only be activated to the larger size, while directly on top of whatever was being sought (like an input box, or a launcher icon); i.e., when not inside a program, it only activates by random chance putting it on top of an icon, or AFTER you already know where the pointer is and have deliberately moved it wherever it’s needed. And, it doesn’t always activate inside program windows. In fact, so far, I’ve only found it activated in 5 places:
* Working in LibreOffice,
* Working in FireFox,
* Working in Thunderbird,
* Hovering over a details list in zzz-fm,
* Or working in LeafPad.Note that in LeafPad, the moment you stray off the editing area, it reverts back to the miniscule pointer. The same is true, the moment you get away from being over the details list in zzz-fm.
BUT – LibreOffice is the most important place I need it active within, and easily visible part of the time is a huge improvement over never being easily visible. So, I’m grateful for this small improvement.
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