How to set up "Find Cursor"

kevino · 2022-12-17 16:18:17

I've been using Xfce on Xubuntu for some years now, and I'm just moving to Linux Mint Xfce version (to avoid automated updates and Firefox snaps). I've never had to tweak the settings very much before now, so I'm kinda awkward with it. Anyway, my mouse cursor was very small and dark. I figured out how to make it bigger but it's still easy to loose on my 3 monitors (I love lots of screen real estate and my System76 Kudu laptop).

SO....

In Settings -> Accessibility -> Mouse at the bottom of the window there is "Find Cursor" which says "Bind a keyboard shortcut to xfce4-find-cursor to get visual feedback of the mouse pointer's current location". But it does not say how to do that, nor contain a link to where that is explained. Not even in the online help. Somebody ought to fix that.

Anyway, I was able to find it, and I have such a thing bound to Ctrll+Super+K (according to Settings-> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts). Problem is, it does not appear to do anything. There is no description of what I should expect (blinking? size changes? Some kind of halo?)

Am I doing something wrong?

Can I make my mouse pointer some color besides black?

Can I have a tail on the mouse cursor?

Last edited by kevino (2022-12-17 16:19:39)

ToZ · 2022-12-17 17:15:17

kevino wrote:

Anyway, I was able to find it, and I have such a thing bound to Ctrll+Super+K (according to Settings-> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts). Problem is, it does not appear to do anything. There is no description of what I should expect (blinking? size changes? Some kind of halo?)

A radiating, expanding red circle. Make sure that your keyboard shortcut runs "xfce4-find-cursor". You can run that command in a terminal window to test it out.

Can I make my mouse pointer some color besides black?

You can use mouse cursor themes. Settings Manager > Mouse and Touchpad > Theme. You can download more themes from xfce-look.org. You can also increase mouse size there.

Can I have a tail on the mouse cursor?

Not that I am aware of.

kevino · 2022-12-17 21:00:58

@ToZ Thanks for the quick reply. I re-checked spelling and everything and all looked good. So I went back into Application Shortcuts and did it using their menus, which resulted in /usr/bin/xfce4-find-cursor, and now it works. Dunno why it didn't before, but your validating that I was close helped me go what needed to be done. And it's pretty spectacular, actually.

Themes has only white and black. I'll browse as you suggested.

Last edited by kevino (2022-12-17 21:02:23)

kevino · 2022-12-17 22:39:00

I tried browsing. Best for me would be the "redglass" theme I'm used to on Xubuntu. I found it, but apt could not find x11-data-cursor-themes, as the post instructed. Any hints?

Never mind. The Software manager app found Xcursor-themes for me, and it had redglass, which is now installed. I'm good.

Last edited by kevino (2022-12-18 00:12:11)

ToZ · 2022-12-18 00:14:51

redglass cursor theme is in the xcursor-themes ubuntu package.

Edit: sorry - missed your update.

Last edited by ToZ (2022-12-18 00:15:37)

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#1 2022-12-17 16:18:17

How to set up "Find Cursor"

#2 2022-12-17 17:15:17

Re: How to set up "Find Cursor"

#3 2022-12-17 21:00:58

Re: How to set up "Find Cursor"

#4 2022-12-17 22:39:00

Re: How to set up "Find Cursor"

#5 2022-12-18 00:14:51

Re: How to set up "Find Cursor"

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