Greetings!

Well, I'm tired of asking on -some- channels in Freenode so I guess I could go here and ask (and at least get an answer... even if it's an 'I don't know', which is better I guess rather than not answering... anyways) how to change the X cursor theme in Debian Etch? I've tried using gcursor but doesn't changes the theme, even though when I run it again, the selected theme is highlighted, which should mean it worked... but it didn't. Also tried some tutorials online for installing the cursor themes (using something named update-alternatives) and didn't worked either so...

Can anybody lend me a hand?

Thanks in advance

Try as root:

update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme

and see if that has what you want.

Al

I tried that, but it didn't worked either

I installed the Artwiz cursor theme (artwiz-cursor)... but IIRC it wasn't a pretty installation. I think it overwrote the default X cursors so I probably need to reinstall those if I want to switch back. I think the X cursors are stored as a special font somewhere. Not sure if that helps you.

I had this problem on an etch box, the only way I could get it to change was to change the name of the directory /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/whiteglass

I assume you restared your wm afterward? (alt-ctl-backspace on kde).

Al

I'll try that Dracae

Acanton, yep I did, and it had no effect.

What WM/DE are you using?

XFCE 4.2.3.2 (XFCE 4.2)

That's according to the about box.

By the way, even tried editing the xorg.conf, didn't worked... also tried using Kcontrol, didn't worked either, both as root and not root...

XFCE seems to have a lot in common with Gnome, so maybe try putting the cursors in ~/.icons and see if they show up somewhere in the control panel?

Nope, and the mouse control panel of XFCE can't change mouse themes... though, IIRC (I'm under Windows atm) I think the theme appears in the Icon Set in the User Interface settings... but doesn't changes anything, either.

Edit: What I mean is, it seems that everything can detect the new cursor themes (even update-alternatives) but nothing can apply them :/, not even the crystal cursor themes in the apt repository, which I consider weird... shouldn't it work?

What is the output of:
ls -l /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme
and
cat /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme
and
ls -l /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/default/index.theme
and
cat /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/default/index.theme

$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 43 2006-02-27 04:50 /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme -> /usr/share/crystalcursors/crystalblue.theme

$ cat /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme
[Icon Theme]
Inherits = crystalblue

$ ls -l /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/default/index.theme
ls: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/default/index.theme: directory or file does not exist

$ cat /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/default/index.theme
cat: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons/default/index.theme: directory or file does not exist

(My Debian's in Spanish, so I translated the "directory or file does not exist" message from Spanish)

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icos/default/index.theme should be a symbolic link to /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme

How do I do a symbolic link? I've heard about them but don't know how to set/edit/use them :/

Edit: Oh wait, IT WORKED!!!! YAY!!!! all I had to do was "ln -s index.theme /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme" and then after an X restart... WHOOT, it works!!! thanks a lot!!