Thursday, March 11, 2010

Setting a mouse cursor theme in Archbang

First step: Copy icons theme folder unpacked to /usr/share/icons


Sudo update-alternatives as described below doesn' t work in Arch.
So try this:
The same is also accomplished if you edit /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme and add or adjust the following lines (using the cursor theme DMZ-White as an example):
 [Icon Theme]
Inherits=DMZ-White

Make sure the name you specify in ~/.Xdefaults matches the name of the folder the theme is stored in (as always case sensitive). When you restart X, the new cursor theme should be applied. Restart X with oblogout or control alt backspace . If that last one doesn' t work:
IYou need to put the following in your .xinitrc:

setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp &

This is from http://urukrama.wordpress.com/openbox-guide/#Mousethemes


Mouse cursor themes

What do you do when you want to change the mouse cursor theme? You can do this in two ways: system-wide, or for a single user.

If you install an X cursor theme, such as dmz-cursor-theme, system-wide (in /usr/share/icons) you can change the default X cursor theme with the command: sudo update-alternatives –config x-cursor-theme, which will show you a list of available cursor themes. Select the one you like, and when you restart X the new cursor theme should be used. The same is also accomplished if you edit /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme and add or adjust the following lines (using the cursor theme DMZ-White as an example):

 [Icon Theme]
Inherits=DMZ-White

You can also specify the mouse cursor theme in /home/USERNAME/.Xdefaults to change the theme for a single user only. To change the mouse cursor theme in this way, add the following to that file:

 Xcursor.theme:NAMEOFTHETHEME
Xcursor.size: SIZE #optional

Change the mouse Xcursor.theme to whatever your preferred theme is named. Some cursor themes support can display more than one size; if you use such a theme, you can specify the size with the second line (normal sizes are 32, 48 or 64). If the cursor theme only has a single size, this line is meaningless.

You can install cursor themes in /home/USERNAME/.icons or /usr/share/icons/. Make sure the name you specify in ~/.Xdefaults matches the name of the folder the theme is stored in (as always case sensitive). When you restart X, the new cursor theme should be applied.

If you prefer graphical tools, you could try out gcursor, a Gtk application to change cursor themes (with previews).

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