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rated 0 times [  8] [ 0]  / answers: 1 / hits: 7623  / 2 Years ago, sun, march 13, 2022, 1:04:18

Is there a way to set a left-handed mouse pointer in Ubuntu 13.04?



For those who don't know what left-handed mouse pointers are:



enter image description here


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 Answers
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It does not seem there are many left-handed cursor themes. You have the following options:



comixcursors-lefthanded (ugly)



You have to install comixcursors-lefthanded Install comixcursors-lefthanded and gcursor Install gcursor (gnome cursor theme managing software). Although gcursor doesn't seem to do install the theme for me it is useful to see what a cursor theme looks like.



gcursor



The theme ComixCursors-LH-White-Small looks the most decent, so let's pick that one



Installation

First we need to add an extra line to the themes index.themes file. All themes are located in /usr/share/icons, and for the ComixCursors-LH-White-Small theme we need to do



sudo gedit /usr/share/icons/ComixCursors-LH-White-Small/index.theme


This file looks like this:



[Icon Theme]
Name = Comix Cursor LH White Small Bold
Comment = The left-handed Comix Cursors - White Small Bold
Example = default


Now we need to add the following line at the bottom (of course if you pick another theme, you should write the name of the other theme)



Inherits = ComixCursors-LH-White-Small


Now save and close the file.



On Ubuntu the utility update-alternatives manages the cursor themes, so we need to tell it about this new theme we want to use, execute



sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/ComixCursors-LH-White-Small/index.theme 91
sudo update-alternatives --set x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/ComixCursors-LH-White-Small/index.theme


Now if you log out and log in again, you should have your new cursors.



Note:

You can use



sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme


to change between the installed cursor themes.



Modifying the default (DMZ-White) theme (beautiful)



The above approach works but the cursors are ugly, however you can also modify the default theme. The cursors that you use most are the normal pointer and the hand (which appears if you hover over a link):



left_ptr
hand2



which are /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursors/left_ptr and /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursors/hand2.



The DMZ-White theme also provides a pointer that points to the right, and I made my own mirrored hand using gimp Install gimp (see note at the end):



right_ptr hand3



The pointer is /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursors/right_ptr, and mirrored hand is called hand3 and I made it available on mediafire (if you follow the instructions below, you will download it automatically to the correct directory).



Now we need to replace these cursors. First go to the DMZ-White cursor directory



cd /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursors/


Then download the hand3 cursor



sudo wget http://www.mediafire.com/download/v45c56ewol1k140/hand3


Now backup the original left_ptr and hand2 files



sudo mv left_ptr left_ptr_orig
sudo mv hand2 hand2_orig


Now let the new left_ptr and hand2 point to the right_ptr and hand3 files



sudo ln -s right_ptr left_ptr
sudo ln -s hand3 hand2


Now if you log out and log in again, you should have your new (beautiful) cursors.






Note: Editing cursor files using gimp

You can edit cursor files (and make your own cursor theme :) ) using gimp Install gimp which is a free alternative to Photoshop. If you want to save your file choose Export to and then pick X11 Mouse Cursor. This will save your file with the .xmc extension, but you can simply remove the extension.


[#31041] Sunday, March 13, 2022, 2 Years  [reply] [flag answer]
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