# Changing default "X" cursor



## TaosBSD (Nov 24, 2011)

Hey all!

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I've been on FreeBSD for 2 years, so I am still a noob in MANY regards, and this may be a noobish problem  

Here's the situation. I've built a system for a non-computer literate friend so he can literally boot up, and ONLY use Blender 3D for digital sculpting. Basically a dedicated workstation, if you will. I have xorg installed, and start blender directly within the .xinitrc file. The problem I have is two-fold. First, the mouse cursor only appears when you move to the edge of the screen (I can see the brush in Blender sculpt move is how I know it is working at all), and then it becomes the ugly "X" cursor from then out. Obviously, with a window manager running, these problems don't exist, but in the case of a single program, I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it. I've been googling all morning and searching here and still can't seem to find an answer, so here I am, hoping someone else has dealt with this. Even pointing me in the right direction documentation-wise would be a great help. 

Thanks in advance, I hope I've been fairly clear 

...and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US!

PS...I know it seems weird that I don't want a formal desktop on this system, but when I say my friend is computer-illiterate, I mean SEVERELY (we're still working on the concept of _folders_). He is, however, a very talented artist.
This system only needs to do one thing, everything else will just confuse him more!


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## Beastie (Nov 24, 2011)

Welcome to the forum.

x11-themes/xcursor-themes is most probably already installed. Check the output of *ls /usr/local/lib/X11/icons*.
Create ~/.Xdefaults and add one of the themes you saw before, e.g.:

```
Xcursor.theme: [b]whiteglass[/b]
```
The size can be changed using

```
Xcursor.size: [b]some_number[/b]
```

Does this help?


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## TaosBSD (Nov 24, 2011)

Beastie said:
			
		

> Welcome to the forum.
> Does this help?



Hey Beastie, much thanks for your reply, it covered something I never crossed paths with before, that .Xdefaults file. 

I tried what you suggested and got no change. I decided I better try it with a different program just to see what happens. With xcalc, there was no problem. With gcolor2 and Cinepaint, there WAS the problem. Strangeness :\

So, I am off to google and see if I can find out with this new bit of knowledge. If nothing else, this starts to narrow my search down a bit.

Thanks again for the reply!


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## wblock@ (Nov 24, 2011)

It might be easier to just install a simple window manager like x11-wm/icewm.  Users expect certain common things like minimize/maximize and close buttons, and icewm is familiar enough for most people to run without additional instructions.


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## TaosBSD (Nov 25, 2011)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> It might be easier to just install a simple window manager like x11-wm/icewm.  Users expect certain common things like minimize/maximize and close buttons, and icewm is familiar enough for most people to run without additional instructions.



Thanks wblock.  I am settling with doing just that actually. Glad to know I'm not _totally_ crazy 

I appreciate everyone's help here. You guys are a great bunch.


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