LinuxQuestions.org - Finally solved my disappearing mouse cursor

- Bodhi (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/bodhi-92/)

- - Finally solved my disappearing mouse cursor (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/bodhi-92/finally-solved-my-disappearing-mouse-cursor-4175650308/)

Finally solved my disappearing mouse cursor

One problem I've struggled with forever is the mouse cursor often disappearing after change of resolution or return from screenblank on my old athlon, with no way short of a reboot to bring it back.

I finally learned it is related to the nouveau video driver and my old nvidia graphics chipset. Once I knew this, I tried the nvidia-304 drivers, but they're not packaged for ubuntu 18 so I had to use nividia's installer. Anyways they were not reliable, they caused horiziontal lines a few cm wide to glitch on the screen, plus intermittent lockups.

So back to nouveau. I updated kernel to 4.20 cuz I don't fully understand what that does and seemed like there's nouveau stuff in the kernel and I figured it can't hurt, as I was on kernel 4.09 (bodhi legacy). But still same issue.

The solution was to create /etc/X11/xorg.conf and use option SWCursor. This disables the hardware mouse cursor; I haven't seen any ill effects since.

Code:

Section "Device"

  Identifier "graphicsdriver"

  Driver    "nouveau"

  Option    "SWCursor" "true"

EndSection

So I'm pleased. Doubt this issue affects anyone else as it's pretty specific to my old hardware, but it was a problem I've asked about several times so glad it's finally resolved.

I myself work with older hardware often, so I will certainly keep this thread in mind. Nice job!

thanks for sharing this!
we need more "positive outcome threads".

one small, mostly semantic addition:

Quote:

Originally Posted by enigma9o7 (Post 5974554)

The solution was to create /etc/X11/xorg.conf and use option SWCursor.

i think the recommended way would be to create a file that might be called something like /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau-swcursor.conf and put the config there.

Thank-you, this worked for me :)