Inconsistent cursor visibility with cursor plugin enabled

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

It could be that the cursor *never* becoming visible is more likely to occur if there is no mouse movement at the greeter screen, ie. one goes from greeter to Desktop without making the cursor visible
If so then maybe this is some occasional glitch with the window manager?

hello,
same issue here.
I've found a working keyboard shortcut workaround :
move on a text terminal (crtl-alt-F1)
move back on the graphical session (ctrl-alt-F7) and the move cursor will came back

Same bug for me.

Ubuntu 13.10 amd64.

Bruno Munoz workaround works for me! Thank you.

I have nearly the same problem. I have recently upgraded to 13.10 and the invisible-mouse-cursor problem immediately affected me. Basically, I have the following:

 - I have no visible cursor inside LightDM during login
 - I have no visible cursor inside the Lubuntu session of LXDE. Although I can click and perform all mouse activities.
 - For a brief moment, after successful login between the Lightdm and LXDE session, I can see the X server's default mouse cursor. But it disappears as soon as LXDE is started.

I found a rather dumb way of fixing the problem and I have no clue why it worked.

1. Created a new user called 'dummy'
2. Logged out from my default user session (where the mouse cursor is invisible). Alternatively you could do 'sudo service restart lightdm' if clicking the right button becomes tedious due to the "invisible" cursor
3. From LightDM, logged in as 'dummy' - great, mouse cursor is visible here.
4. Logged out from 'dummy' user session
5. From LightDM, Logged in as the default user - voila! mouse cursor is back!

Other tricks that I had tried:

 - sudo update-alternatives --display x-cursor-theme ## make sure it is set to a theme that you have installed on your machine
 - Check ~/.config/lxsession/Lubuntu or ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE to make sure it matches what you have set above

Hope it helps.

On the same machine with a new 14.04 install this does not occur though still an issue with the 13.10 install
The 13.10 was installed on 10/04 so possibly a new 13.10 release install would be fine, I've no inclination to try as 13.10 is relatively unimportant

14.04 have exactly the same issue.

I do now see on 14.04 but much rarer occurrence then in 13.10. So I'll just continue to disable the cursor plugin in g-s-d until this is fixed (if ever
Can't say I've seen any downside to having the plugin disabled, other than the 'no visible cursor till mouse moved feature' which is of no importance here.

Same bug here. 13.10 on Sony Vaio Pro Haswell.
Bruno Munoz' workaround works for the time being. Thanks.

Per duped Bug #1237218, the manifestation I see of this is that very occasionally I log in (not having touched the mouse at all so I'm unsure if it is working on the greeter screen), and I find that there is no mouse visible in Unity. It is still active, as I can use the invisible mouse pointer to click on things. Using keyboard navigation to log out and then logging in again, the problem is probably gone and the mouse pointer visible again.

I have also found this to be a problem a couple of times on Ubuntu 13.10. I haven't experienced it enough times to definitively figure out what is happening. But I believe that this bug might be occurring when you reboot a machine and log in without ever touching the mouse. I resolved the problem by logging out using the indicator (without seeing my cursor), and then logging in while making sure I move the mouse.

I'm not sure why this is categorized as a low priority bug. Although it is fairly minor bug, I can certainly see that it would be very frustrating and annoying for novice and expert users alike.

That seems like https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706229, but the upstream bug applies to GNOME 3.10 and not our 3.8 version.

The GNOME ticket also points to an xorg issue, https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59644
which might fixes the issue seen here

Do people having the issue "play" with their trackpad while the screen is loading? it seems like it could be happening while events are mixed on loading. Does it happen if you keep your hands off the device on boot?

the xorg fixes is http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/commit/?h=server-1.14-branch&id=6cc5efa68e5fdc301ab9a381bffe88fe5c7865e2

(the stack of commit from 2013-10-22 on http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/log/Xext/sync.c?h=server-1.14-branch is likely needed as well)

This bug was fixed in the package xorg-server - 2:1.14.4-1ubuntu1

---------------
xorg-server (2:1.14.4-1ubuntu1) trusty; urgency=low

  * Merge released debian-unstable.
  * Cherry-pick fix to sync code. (LP: #1238410)

xorg-server (2:1.14.4-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
  * Drop upstreamed patches.
    - 02_improve-posix-saved-ids-check.diff
    - 04_hashtabletest-s390x.diff
    - 10_Include-missing-selection-h.diff
 -- Maarten Lankhorst <email address hidden> Wed, 04 Dec 2013 13:54:02 +0100

Fix appears to be working fine here on 14.04, tested over the day thru numerous restarts & log out/ins
(though 14.04 wasn't as susceptible as 13.10 for whatever reason

Thanks for confirming Doug, I was a bit unsure how to test that one since I never ran into it (is it specific to laptops/touchpads?). In any case keep looking for it but it's looking good ;-)

On 12/05/2013 03:39 AM, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Thanks for confirming Doug, I was a bit unsure how to test that one
> since I never ran into it (is it specific to laptops/touchpads?). In any
> case keep looking for it but it's looking good ;-)
>
It could be specific to laptops, here that's all I have so can't remark
on Desktops anymore.
Maybe I should tag some bugs in future with "laptop", if that's an
acceptable tag??

No, it's not specific to laptops.
I have this issue only on my desktop PC (using a Microsoft Explorer mouse).

I experience this problem on my desktop PC too from time to time. The workaround from comment #4 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1238410/comments/4) brings back the cursor.

Hello Doug, or anyone else affected,

Accepted xorg-server into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/2:1.14.5-1ubuntu2~saucy1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

I'm glad to see there's a fix. I haven't had the cursor staying invisible problem, but I have an issue with this setting in general.

I use focus follows mouse. When the mouse blanks out, whatever window it's over gets focus.

The use case where this behavior is most noticeable is in my IDE. I hit ctrl-h to make a search window pop up. I start typing in the search. Then my mouse disappears and focus switches to my IDE's editor. Now I'm typing a fragment of my search in there. This happens a couple times a minute and it's aggravating as hell.

Please consider changing the default setting OR the behavior of the mosue blanking out so that it doesn't trigger focus.

I am NOT sure if this is the same as this bug but in my case, the cursor has disappeared after the monitor was off/screensaver - once I moved the mouse to see the desktop, there was no cursor but I was able to click, I just can NOT see the cursor and it is hard to use a ghost cursor and keep clicking blindly :)

Doug, please test if the update fixes it for you.

On 12/19/2013 08:36 AM, Timo Aaltonen wrote:
> Doug, please test if the update fixes it for you.
>
Tim - I was hoping someone who was using 13.10 & affected would test.
Seeing as that's not happening I'll put up a new 13.10 release install & -

See if the invisible cursor behavior happens.
If so, do any of the current non -proposed updates help.

If still occurring then will upgrade the -proposed & ck.
Should take a day to run thru & report back

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Tried for a day plus on 2 laptops to reproduce this bug on fresh 13.10 release installs & *can not* cause it to happen.
Then updated fully & still it does not occur.

After all that did go ahead & upgrade xserver-xorg-core/common from -proposed, see no regressions from it.

So from here the upgrade would not be needed, not sure where that leaves this as no other previously affected user has chimed in.

SInce no one else has chimed in, here's my situation... I had the mouse cursor disappears problem on a fresh install of 13.10. Drove me nuts. Changing the gnome settings to false (as reported elsewhere I think) did not bring the cursor back, however, going to a full-screen terminal (CTL-ALT-F6/F7 for me) brought the cursor back. The cursor would disappear at random times, however there were two things that I could do to guarantee to make it happen. Open a video in VLC or run SSVNC.

I'm not sure I did it correctly, but I added the saucy-proposed repository and I added the /etc/apt/preference file to not force other updates. Then I opened synaptic and could not find the xorg-server package that had been updated. Couldn't find anything like that, but I did find several packages with the similar version (2:1.14.3) so I blindly upgraded xserver-xorg-core, which also upgraded xserver-xorg-common (I think, because I can't find it in synaptic). I am now running xserver-xorg-core 2:1.14.5-1ubuntu2~saucy1.

Anyway, all that to say that since I did that yesterday, it has completely fixed the bug for me. Haven't had the cursor disappear once. It fixed the VLC issue as well as the SSVNC issue. Thank you very much!!!

Previously I had the issue and could replicate by shutting lid on laptop and then open.

Upgraded xserver-org-common and xserver-org-core from proposed and this has resolved the issue.

This bug was fixed in the package xorg-server - 2:1.14.5-1ubuntu2~saucy1

---------------
xorg-server (2:1.14.5-1ubuntu2~saucy1) saucy-proposed; urgency=low

  * Copy package back to saucy-proposed from trusty.
    - There's a MRE for xorg-server.
    - Fixes mesa >= 10 support on saucy.
    - Fix a timer bug in the sync code. (LP: #1238410)
  * Changes in packaging:
    - Fix gpu screen output hotplugging. (LP: #1259561)
    - Do not render invalid trapezoids. (LP: #1197921) (CVE-2013-6424)
    - Fix for CVE-2013-1056.
 -- Maarten Lankhorst <email address hidden> Mon, 16 Dec 2013 13:27:58 +0100

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

unity-tweak-tool --reset-unity

this worked for me until next reboot

I have some errors using that comand, though. I suppose fixing it would fix the problem.

with that command, power menu and those things disappeared

More errors in unity-tweak-tool

If the command is used, Unity is loaded with admin privileges, so everything will be opened as root.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Only to make things easier for everybody affected by the bug:
If I am right

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false

fixes the problem.

Since my duplicate doesn't seem to add Ubuntu vivid to the affected packages and the problem seems to have returned there: How do I mark the bug as "affects ubuntu vivid" here? Or is doing so the Right Thing To Do?

saucy has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the saucy task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

I think this is hardware dependant as well. Since on my Ideapad Yoga i never have mouse pointer appearing. Can we please disable the cursor plugin and release it as SRU?

15.04 here and this problem occur on my notebook. After ctrl+alt+backspace mouse pointer appears.
I noticed that mouse pointer disappears even on lightdm.

pointer isn't managed by unity

hey there, *new here* - I had the same problem with Xubuntu 14.04.3 32bit (with external screen) - it appears I discovered a work around(?) for the issue, see attachments please - also I testet deactivating this plugin: with

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false
did NOT work for me after reboot,

but I kept the "false" setting and made the following changes that seem to work (attachment), also I am not sure which of these 3 steps made the issue disappear.