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Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam

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  Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-17 17:00 +0100
    Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2024-11-17 18:40 +0100
      Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-17 19:20 +0100
        Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2024-11-17 19:40 +0100
          Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam debian-user@howorth.org.uk - 2024-11-17 21:30 +0100
            Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-18 06:40 +0100
              Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam debian-user@howorth.org.uk - 2024-11-18 21:20 +0100
    Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Darac Marjal <lists-debian-user@bendel.debian.org> - 2024-11-17 21:00 +0100
    Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-11-17 21:20 +0100
      Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-17 22:30 +0100
        Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> - 2024-11-18 11:00 +0100
          Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Christoph Brinkhaus <c.brinkhaus@t-online.de> - 2024-11-20 14:50 +0100
    Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2024-11-17 22:30 +0100
      Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-17 23:30 +0100
        Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-18 00:00 +0100
          Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam debian-user@howorth.org.uk - 2024-11-18 21:40 +0100
            Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-18 22:30 +0100
              Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Fred <fred@blakemfg.com> - 2024-11-19 01:30 +0100
    Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam "Jonathan Dowland" <jmtd@debian.org> - 2024-11-19 11:20 +0100
    Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Karl Vogel <vogelke@pobox.com> - 2024-12-05 11:20 +0100
      Re: Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-12-05 14:20 +0100

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#274601 — Looking for X cursor theme with bigger or darker I-Beam

I'm running Debian 12 on two systems, on both of them I use large
terminal (xfce4) windows quite extensively and I use a light grey
background in the terminal windows.

This means that the default X cursor isn't very visible when it's
somewhere in one of the terminal windows and I often have trouble
seeing it.

So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
other ones.

Alternatively a way to simply change the colour of the I-Beam would
help, it's obviously designed to be most visible on a dark background.

Please note this is the X/mouse cursor I'm talking about, not the text
cursor that shows where you are entering text in a terminal window.

-- 
Chris Green
·

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#274605

Chris Green wrote: 

Most terminals offer the ability to change the cursor color when 
the cursor is in them. In the settings for xfterminal, I'm
pretty sure you can set that. Go look?

-dsr-

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#274608

Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> Chris Green wrote: 
> 
> Most terminals offer the ability to change the cursor color when 
> the cursor is in them. In the settings for xfterminal, I'm
> pretty sure you can set that. Go look?
> 
It's not the terminal cursor so I don't think the terminal can do
anything aboout its colour.

-- 
Chris Green
·

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#274609

Chris Green wrote: 
> Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> > Chris Green wrote: 
> > 
> > Most terminals offer the ability to change the cursor color when 
> > the cursor is in them. In the settings for xfterminal, I'm
> > pretty sure you can set that. Go look?
> > 
> It's not the terminal cursor so I don't think the terminal can do
> anything aboout its colour.

You might be correct, but right now, you're not expending the
fractional effort necessary to find out.

Nobody should be willing to spend more effort on solving your problem
than you.

-dsr-

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#274614

Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> Chris Green wrote: 
> > Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:  
> > > Chris Green wrote: 
> > > 
> > > Most terminals offer the ability to change the cursor color when 
> > > the cursor is in them. In the settings for xfterminal, I'm
> > > pretty sure you can set that. Go look?
> > >   
> > It's not the terminal cursor so I don't think the terminal can do
> > anything aboout its colour.  
> 
> You might be correct, but right now, you're not expending the
> fractional effort necessary to find out.
> 
> Nobody should be willing to spend more effort on solving your problem
> than you.

That's insulting. Chris is quite right. Terminals commonly have the
means to alter some attributes of the terminal cursor, but never the X
cursor in my experience. I just checked the terminals I have and they
don't. (I don't have xfterminal so maybe that is somehow an exception,
but TBH I doubt it). It's up to you to clarify explicitly that you did
understand we're talking about the X cursor and you did mean it, IMHO.

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#274634

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On Sun, Nov 17, 2024 at 08:25:33PM +0000, debian-user@howorth.org.uk wrote:
> Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> > Chris Green wrote: 
> > > Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:  
> > > > Chris Green wrote: 
> > > > 
> > > > Most terminals offer the ability to change the cursor color when 
> > > > the cursor is in them. In the settings for xfterminal, I'm
> > > > pretty sure you can set that. Go look?
> > > >   
> > > It's not the terminal cursor so I don't think the terminal can do
> > > anything aboout its colour.  
> > 
> > You might be correct, but right now, you're not expending the
> > fractional effort necessary to find out.
> > 
> > Nobody should be willing to spend more effort on solving your problem
> > than you.
> 
> That's insulting. Chris is quite right. Terminals commonly have the
> means to alter some attributes of the terminal cursor, but never the X
> cursor in my experience.

Note that it is the terminal (or whatever application) who "tells" X
what cursor to set when moving "over" some application's window. It
is in the X11 protocol. This usually results in that "I-Beam" cursor.

So to decide whether it's "insulting" or Dan actually has a point,
you better read up in the reference below.

Dan is talking about the X "cursor" (which we better call "pointer" to
avoid confusion). Nobody's talking about the term cursor.

Cheers

[1] https://x.org/releases/current/doc/libX11/libX11/libX11.html#Cursor_Attribute
-- 
t

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#274648

<tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 17, 2024 at 08:25:33PM +0000, debian-user@howorth.org.uk
> wrote:
> > Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:  
> > > Chris Green wrote:   
> > > > Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:    
> > > > > Chris Green wrote: 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Most terminals offer the ability to change the cursor color
> > > > > when the cursor is in them. In the settings for xfterminal,
> > > > > I'm pretty sure you can set that. Go look?
> > > > >     
> > > > It's not the terminal cursor so I don't think the terminal can
> > > > do anything aboout its colour.    
> > > 
> > > You might be correct, but right now, you're not expending the
> > > fractional effort necessary to find out.
> > > 
> > > Nobody should be willing to spend more effort on solving your
> > > problem than you.  
> > 
> > That's insulting. Chris is quite right. Terminals commonly have the
> > means to alter some attributes of the terminal cursor, but never
> > the X cursor in my experience.  
> 
> Note that it is the terminal (or whatever application) who "tells" X
> what cursor to set when moving "over" some application's window. It
> is in the X11 protocol. This usually results in that "I-Beam" cursor.

I am talking about attributes of the cursor, such as colours, not about
the Cursor Attribute of a Window, as discussed in your reference.

Once again, I know that many terminals offer the ability to change
attributes of the terminal cursor, but none that can affect the
attributes (colours) of the X cursor. And my belief is that Chris
shares that same understanding so his response was reasonable.

The X cursor font can be set by a command line argument when starting
the X server. All a window does is choose which character within that
font that is used over particular regions of its window(s).

It is possible to select a larger font for the X cursor. Perhaps that
may be a solution for Chris?

> So to decide whether it's "insulting" or Dan actually has a point,
> you better read up in the reference below.
> 
> Dan is talking about the X "cursor" (which we better call "pointer" to
> avoid confusion). Nobody's talking about the term cursor.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> [1]
> https://x.org/releases/current/doc/libX11/libX11/libX11.html#Cursor_Attribute

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#274612

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You might try the "chameleon-cursor-theme" package. There are several 
coloured cursors in that, hopefully one of theme is more visible.

On 17/11/2024 15:40, Chris Green wrote:
> I'm running Debian 12 on two systems, on both of them I use large
> terminal (xfce4) windows quite extensively and I use a light grey
> background in the terminal windows.
>
> This means that the default X cursor isn't very visible when it's
> somewhere in one of the terminal windows and I often have trouble
> seeing it.
>
> So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
> I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
> and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
> other ones.
>
> Alternatively a way to simply change the colour of the I-Beam would
> help, it's obviously designed to be most visible on a dark background.
>
> Please note this is the X/mouse cursor I'm talking about, not the text
> cursor that shows where you are entering text in a terminal window.
>

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#274613

Chris Green composed on 2024-11-17 15:40 (UTC):

> I'm running Debian 12 on two systems, on both of them I use large
> terminal (xfce4) windows quite extensively and I use a light grey
> background in the terminal windows.

> This means that the default X cursor isn't very visible when it's
> somewhere in one of the terminal windows and I often have trouble
> seeing it.

> So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
> I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
> and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
> other ones.

I don't often use XFCE, so have no meaningful familiarity with its own settings.

I use dmz-cursor-theme in Debian and elsewhere that offer it. It comes in various
sizes, plus two colors, black and white.

On Debian I typically add

	Xcursor.theme: DMZ-White
	Xcursor.size: 32

to some file in /etc/X11/Xresources. 48 is about two+ rows tall on my 24"
1920x1200 screen @120DPI. White's I-beam is white in center, with border black,
like pointer.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
	based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata

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#274616

Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> wrote:
> Chris Green composed on 2024-11-17 15:40 (UTC):
> 
> > I'm running Debian 12 on two systems, on both of them I use large
> > terminal (xfce4) windows quite extensively and I use a light grey
> > background in the terminal windows.
> 
> > This means that the default X cursor isn't very visible when it's
> > somewhere in one of the terminal windows and I often have trouble
> > seeing it.
> 
> > So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
> > I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
> > and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
> > other ones.
> 
> I don't often use XFCE, so have no meaningful familiarity with its own settings.
> 
> I use dmz-cursor-theme in Debian and elsewhere that offer it. It comes in various
> sizes, plus two colors, black and white.
> 
> On Debian I typically add
> 
>         Xcursor.theme: DMZ-White
>         Xcursor.size: 32
> 
> to some file in /etc/X11/Xresources. 48 is about two+ rows tall on my 24"
> 1920x1200 screen @120DPI. White's I-beam is white in center, with border black,
> like pointer.

Aha, that is at least getting me in the right direction.  If I simply
change the Xcursor.size: setting in /etc/X11/Xresources/x11-common
then the X cursor in **most** places changes size.  However the cursor
when moving across an xfce4-terminal window stays obstinately as a
small, not very visible, I-Beam.

So, I think there must be something in xfce4-terminal that's
determining what X cursor is used.  Ah, no, it seems to be the same
for any terminal window.  If I run an xterm then that, too, has to
small cursor.

There seems to be some way thet terminal windows override the X cursor
size setting.  So is there some X resource setting relating
specifically to the X-window cursor size on a terminal window?

I'll have a dig around the xterm man page and its X resources.

-- 
Chris Green
·

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#274635

Response below/inline for email Chris Green wrote:
> (original email sent 17 Nov 2024 at 21:13)
> 
> Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> wrote:
>> I use dmz-cursor-theme in Debian and elsewhere that offer it. It comes in various
>> sizes, plus two colors, black and white.
>> 
>> On Debian I typically add
>> 
>>         Xcursor.theme: DMZ-White
>>         Xcursor.size: 32

[...]

> So, I think there must be something in xfce4-terminal that's
> determining what X cursor is used.  Ah, no, it seems to be the same
> for any terminal window.  If I run an xterm then that, too, has to
> small cursor.

I've tried what Felix suggested and it works just fine with the X
terminal emulator I use (lxterminal).  The cursor is nice and big if I
specify a size of 64.

I've not tried other terminal emulators.  My window manager is EXWM.

-- 
Eric S Fraga via gnus (Emacs 31.0.50 2024-07-16) on Debian 12.0

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#274695

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Dear community,
Am Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 09:57:18AM +0000 schrieb Eric S Fraga:
> Response below/inline for email Chris Green wrote:
> > (original email sent 17 Nov 2024 at 21:13)
> > 
> > Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> wrote:
> >> I use dmz-cursor-theme in Debian and elsewhere that offer it. It comes in various
> >> sizes, plus two colors, black and white.
> >> 
> >> On Debian I typically add
> >> 
> >>         Xcursor.theme: DMZ-White
> >>         Xcursor.size: 32
> 
> [...]
> 
> > So, I think there must be something in xfce4-terminal that's
> > determining what X cursor is used.  Ah, no, it seems to be the same
> > for any terminal window.  If I run an xterm then that, too, has to
> > small cursor.
> 
I have had the cursor of the dmz-theme when using xterm.
With xfce4-terminal I have faced the same situation as Chris.
The cursor has been the tiny one.

> I've tried what Felix suggested and it works just fine with the X
> terminal emulator I use (lxterminal).  The cursor is nice and big if I
> specify a size of 64.
> 
It might make a difference which gtk-version is used by the terminal.
With Debian-Bookwork any change in terminalrc did not help, too.

Finally I experimented with the files in /usr/share/icons.
There is an directory /usr/share/icons/default. It references
cat /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme
[Icon Theme]
Inherits=Adwaita

Just for testing with almost no hope I renamed the directory to 
/usr/share/icons/ddefault which seems to deactivate some default stuff.
May be there is an official way to deactivate the default icon theme.
If yes, this should be the way to go.

After this change the cursor of the dmz-theme has been available running
xfce4-terminal. The configuration is in ~/.Xresources as below.

Xcursor.theme:DMZ-White
Xcursor.size:48

Kind regards,
Christoph
-- 
Ist die Katze gesund
schmeckt sie dem Hund.

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#274617

On Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:40:05 +0000
Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

> So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
> I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
> and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
> other ones.

Yes. I get a nice big red cursor for most of my windows, except
xfce4-terminal windows. But it's big and stands out nicely there.

Here's what I do:

apt install xcursor-themes galternatives

Then use galternatives to update x-cursor-theme to point to
redglass.theme. Then "xfce4-mouse-settings &" or settings-> mouse and
touchpad-> theme to invoke redglass and set the cursor size to
something large like 36.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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#274618

Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:40:05 +0000
> Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> 
> > So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
> > I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
> > and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
> > other ones.
> 
> Yes. I get a nice big red cursor for most of my windows, except
> xfce4-terminal windows. But it's big and stands out nicely there.
> 
But the one thing I want to change is the X cursor in xfce4-terminal!


> Here's what I do:
> 
> apt install xcursor-themes galternatives
> 
> Then use galternatives to update x-cursor-theme to point to
> redglass.theme. Then "xfce4-mouse-settings &" or settings-> mouse and
> touchpad-> theme to invoke redglass and set the cursor size to
> something large like 36.
> 
Yes, works exactly as you say, big red cursors everywhere **except**
for the I-Beam cursor when crossing terminal windows.  As that's the
only thing I want to do the above change doesn't help me much!  :-)

-- 
Chris Green
·

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#274619

Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:40:05 +0000
> > Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually change the
> > > I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other sets of cursor themes
> > > and they don't change the I-Beam at all, they just change all the
> > > other ones.
> > 
> > Yes. I get a nice big red cursor for most of my windows, except
> > xfce4-terminal windows. But it's big and stands out nicely there.
> > 
> But the one thing I want to change is the X cursor in xfce4-terminal!
> 
> 
> > Here's what I do:
> > 
> > apt install xcursor-themes galternatives
> > 
> > Then use galternatives to update x-cursor-theme to point to
> > redglass.theme. Then "xfce4-mouse-settings &" or settings-> mouse and
> > touchpad-> theme to invoke redglass and set the cursor size to
> > something large like 36.
> > 
> Yes, works exactly as you say, big red cursors everywhere **except**
> for the I-Beam cursor when crossing terminal windows.  As that's the
> only thing I want to do the above change doesn't help me much!  :-)
> 
Not quite true!  Although most of the cursor changes when you change
cursor theme are immediate some changes don't happen unless you log
out and then back in.  There are even some changes that survive that
and you actually have to power cycle the system to get the changes to
be effective. In particular the appearance of the I-Beam cursor on
terminal windows doesn't change unless you log out and back in.

Thus I have managed to improve the visibility of the mouse cursor on
terminal windows by changing to the DMZ (White) theme and increasing
the cursor size a bit.  It's still far from perfect, I'd really like a
different shape for the pointer in this particular case but it's better.

Thanks for all the help everyone and sorry if I got a bit grumpy at
times.

-- 
Chris Green
·

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#274649

Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> > Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:  
> > > On Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:40:05 +0000
> > > Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> > >   
> > > > So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually
> > > > change the I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other
> > > > sets of cursor themes and they don't change the I-Beam at all,
> > > > they just change all the other ones.  
> > > 
> > > Yes. I get a nice big red cursor for most of my windows, except
> > > xfce4-terminal windows. But it's big and stands out nicely there.
> > >   
> > But the one thing I want to change is the X cursor in
> > xfce4-terminal!
> > 
> >   
> > > Here's what I do:
> > > 
> > > apt install xcursor-themes galternatives
> > > 
> > > Then use galternatives to update x-cursor-theme to point to
> > > redglass.theme. Then "xfce4-mouse-settings &" or settings-> mouse
> > > and touchpad-> theme to invoke redglass and set the cursor size to
> > > something large like 36.
> > >   
> > Yes, works exactly as you say, big red cursors everywhere **except**
> > for the I-Beam cursor when crossing terminal windows.  As that's the
> > only thing I want to do the above change doesn't help me much!  :-)
> >   
> Not quite true!  Although most of the cursor changes when you change
> cursor theme are immediate some changes don't happen unless you log
> out and then back in.  There are even some changes that survive that
> and you actually have to power cycle the system to get the changes to
> be effective. In particular the appearance of the I-Beam cursor on
> terminal windows doesn't change unless you log out and back in.

I can believe that you need to restart the X server for some changes to
take effect.

> Thus I have managed to improve the visibility of the mouse cursor on
> terminal windows by changing to the DMZ (White) theme and increasing
> the cursor size a bit.  It's still far from perfect, I'd really like a
> different shape for the pointer in this particular case but it's
> better.
> 
> Thanks for all the help everyone and sorry if I got a bit grumpy at
> times.

TBH, if xfce4-terminal was giving me such grief, I'd simply switch to
some other terminal program. It doesn't really matter which you use.

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#274650

debian-user@howorth.org.uk wrote:
> Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> > Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> > > Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:  
> > > > On Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:40:05 +0000
> > > > Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> > > >   
> > > > > So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually
> > > > > change the I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other
> > > > > sets of cursor themes and they don't change the I-Beam at all,
> > > > > they just change all the other ones.  
> > > > 
> > > > Yes. I get a nice big red cursor for most of my windows, except
> > > > xfce4-terminal windows. But it's big and stands out nicely there.
> > > >   
> > > But the one thing I want to change is the X cursor in
> > > xfce4-terminal!
> > > 
> > >   
> > > > Here's what I do:
> > > > 
> > > > apt install xcursor-themes galternatives
> > > > 
> > > > Then use galternatives to update x-cursor-theme to point to
> > > > redglass.theme. Then "xfce4-mouse-settings &" or settings-> mouse
> > > > and touchpad-> theme to invoke redglass and set the cursor size to
> > > > something large like 36.
> > > >   
> > > Yes, works exactly as you say, big red cursors everywhere **except**
> > > for the I-Beam cursor when crossing terminal windows.  As that's the
> > > only thing I want to do the above change doesn't help me much!  :-)
> > >   
> > Not quite true!  Although most of the cursor changes when you change
> > cursor theme are immediate some changes don't happen unless you log
> > out and then back in.  There are even some changes that survive that
> > and you actually have to power cycle the system to get the changes to
> > be effective. In particular the appearance of the I-Beam cursor on
> > terminal windows doesn't change unless you log out and back in.
> 
> I can believe that you need to restart the X server for some changes to
> take effect.
> 
> > Thus I have managed to improve the visibility of the mouse cursor on
> > terminal windows by changing to the DMZ (White) theme and increasing
> > the cursor size a bit.  It's still far from perfect, I'd really like a
> > different shape for the pointer in this particular case but it's
> > better.
> > 
> > Thanks for all the help everyone and sorry if I got a bit grumpy at
> > times.
> 
> TBH, if xfce4-terminal was giving me such grief, I'd simply switch to
> some other terminal program. It doesn't really matter which you use.

I suspect that most of them will share the same ancestry (VTE) so it's
difficult to escape! :-)

It's not a really **major** issue for me anyway, most of the time I
have no problems, it's just that occasionally I lose the X cursor and
thus a larger and more visible one when it's on a terminal background
would be handy.

-- 
Chris Green
·

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#274653

On 11/18/24 14:17, Chris Green wrote:
> debian-user@howorth.org.uk wrote:
>> Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
>>> Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
>>>> Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:40:05 +0000
>>>>> Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
>>>>>    
>>>>>> So, do any of the cursor themes in xcursor-themes actually
>>>>>> change the I-Beam cursor?  I've looked at a couple of other
>>>>>> sets of cursor themes and they don't change the I-Beam at all,
>>>>>> they just change all the other ones.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes. I get a nice big red cursor for most of my windows, except
>>>>> xfce4-terminal windows. But it's big and stands out nicely there.
>>>>>    
>>>> But the one thing I want to change is the X cursor in
>>>> xfce4-terminal!
>>>>
>>>>    
>>>>> Here's what I do:
>>>>>
>>>>> apt install xcursor-themes galternatives
>>>>>
>>>>> Then use galternatives to update x-cursor-theme to point to
>>>>> redglass.theme. Then "xfce4-mouse-settings &" or settings-> mouse
>>>>> and touchpad-> theme to invoke redglass and set the cursor size to
>>>>> something large like 36.
>>>>>    
>>>> Yes, works exactly as you say, big red cursors everywhere **except**
>>>> for the I-Beam cursor when crossing terminal windows.  As that's the
>>>> only thing I want to do the above change doesn't help me much!  :-)
>>>>    
>>> Not quite true!  Although most of the cursor changes when you change
>>> cursor theme are immediate some changes don't happen unless you log
>>> out and then back in.  There are even some changes that survive that
>>> and you actually have to power cycle the system to get the changes to
>>> be effective. In particular the appearance of the I-Beam cursor on
>>> terminal windows doesn't change unless you log out and back in.
>>
>> I can believe that you need to restart the X server for some changes to
>> take effect.
>>
>>> Thus I have managed to improve the visibility of the mouse cursor on
>>> terminal windows by changing to the DMZ (White) theme and increasing
>>> the cursor size a bit.  It's still far from perfect, I'd really like a
>>> different shape for the pointer in this particular case but it's
>>> better.
>>>
>>> Thanks for all the help everyone and sorry if I got a bit grumpy at
>>> times.
>>
>> TBH, if xfce4-terminal was giving me such grief, I'd simply switch to
>> some other terminal program. It doesn't really matter which you use.
> 
> I suspect that most of them will share the same ancestry (VTE) so it's
> difficult to escape! :-)
> 
> It's not a really **major** issue for me anyway, most of the time I
> have no problems, it's just that occasionally I lose the X cursor and
> thus a larger and more visible one when it's on a terminal background
> would be handy.
> 
Hi,

Why don't you just change the background, maybe just a little, to make 
the existing cursor more visible?

Best regards,
Fred

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#274656

I'm not aware of an existing theme that provides an I-bar that you
describe, but, I found writing my own cursor theme (in my case to
override just the pointer) relatively straightforward, so I would
encourage you to try. The themes can inherit from others so you would
only need to describe the I-bar in yours.

https://jmtd.net/log/amiga_pointer/

-- 
Please do not CC me for listmail.

👱🏻	Jonathan Dowland
✎	 jmtd@debian.org
🔗	https://jmtd.net

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#275271

Sorry, I'm a bit behind on mail.

On Sun 17 Nov 2024 at 10:50:31 (-0500), Chris Green wrote:
> I'm running Debian 12 on two systems, on both of them I use large
> terminal (xfce4) windows quite extensively and I use a light grey
> background in the terminal windows.  This means that the default X
> cursor isn't very visible when it's somewhere in one of the terminal
> windows and I often have trouble seeing it.
> 
> Alternatively a way to simply change the colour of the I-Beam would
> help, it's obviously designed to be most visible on a dark background.

  http://shallowsky.com/linux/x-cursor-themes.html has some good tips.
  I use these settings for a nice visible plus-sign cursor in .Xdefaults:

    ! XTerm*pointerShape: double_arrow works, but is confusing when you
    ! try to lengthen a given window vertically.
    XTerm*pointerShape:           plus
    XTerm*pointerColor:           blue
    XTerm*pointerColorBackground: red

> Please note this is the X/mouse cursor I'm talking about, not the text
> cursor that shows where you are entering text in a terminal window.

  Since I prefer black text on a white background, I found a blue cursor
  to be more visible:

    XTerm.VT100*cursorColor: blue

  Some other settings I've found useful:

    ! scrollback buffer lines - 65535 is max on most machines
    ! (64 is default)
    XTerm*saveLines:            20000

    ! Some OS versions get this wrong.
    XTerm.VT100*termName:                   xterm-color

    ! Xterm should do jump scrolling.  Normally, text is scrolled one
    ! line at a time; this option allows xterm to move multiple lines at
    ! a time so that it does not fall as far behind.  Its use is strongly
    ! recommended since it makes xterm much faster.
    XTerm*jumpScroll:                       true

    ! An xterm should be a login shell that honors .profile and
    ! generally initializes the shell environment the way you expect.
    ! I have no idea why the default is to not do this.
    XTerm*loginShell:                       true

    ! Xterm may scroll asynchronously, meaning that the screen does not
    ! have to be kept completely up to date while scrolling.  This allows
    ! xterm to run faster.
    XTerm*multiScroll:                      true

    ! Uncomment this to use color for underline attribute
    XTerm.VT100*colorULMode:                on
    XTerm.VT100*underLine:                  off

    ! Uncomment this to use color for the bold attribute
    XTerm.VT100*colorBDMode:                on

  Hope this helps.

-- 
Karl Vogel                      I don't speak for anyone but myself

Please whitelist *.playboy.com because one of the law firm partners who
signs the paychecks "likes to read the articles".
                        --Reddit "unusual IT support tickets", 5 Nov 2024

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