Xfree 8.6 and changing cursors

[Guest bradenm]

Until the next version of KDE and Gnome come out, you can use the following script to choose and change mouse cursors in Xfree86 4.3:

 

Save the following (as root) to /usr/bin/choose_cursor :

#!/bin/bash

#

# Script for change cursors in XFree86 4.3 and up

#

# By Ranger <buchanmilne@netscape.net>, ranger.dnsalias.com

# and Braden MacDonald <bradenm_k@shaw.ca>



ICONS=/usr/share/icons

USERICONS=~/.icons

INDEXFILE=default/index.theme



c=(`ls $ICONS/*/cursors $USERICONS/*/cursors -d 2>/dev/null|cut -f5 -d'/'|grep -v default`)



BUTTONS=`for i in $(seq 0 "$[${#c[*]}-2]");do echo -n "$i ${c[i]} ";done``echo -n "${c[$[${#c[*]}-1]]}:$[${#c[*]}-1]"`



MESSAGE="Choose a cursor. You change will take effect in all newly started applications."



THEME=${c[`kdialog --menu "$MESSAGE" $BUTTONS`]}

#THEME=${c[$?]}



if [ $? -eq 0 ];then

       # Root sets the global cursor

       if [ `id -u` -eq 0 ];then

               INDEX=$ICONS/$INDEXFILE

       else

               INDEX=$USERICONS/$INDEXFILE

       fi



       grep -q "[Icon Theme]" $INDEX 2>/dev/null

       if [ $? ]

       then

               cp -f $INDEX $INDEX.backup 2>/dev/null

               cat $INDEX.backup |sed -e "s/^Inherits=.*$/Inherits=$THEME/g" >$INDEX

       else

               echo "[Icon Theme]" >> $INDEX

               echo "Inherits=$THEME" >> $INDEX

       fi



       if [ "$DESKTOP" = "kde" ];then

               #dcop kwin MainApplication-Interface quit

               #kstart kwin &

               # Remove the comment characters (#) from the above lines to have the mouse cursor change (with out logging out) over all window decorations, borders, etc.  I have it commented because I find that it disrupts your window layout and takes about 7 seconds with no window manager, which is ugly.

               dcop kicker kicker restart &

               if [ -x /usr/bin/kdekillall ];then

                       kdekillall kdesktop

                       kstart kdesktop &

               fi

       fi

fi

 

You will then need to run the command "chmod +x /usr/bin/choose_cursor" as root. I also recommend using menudrake and giving it a menu entry.

 

Now, as a regular user, simply run the command "choose_cursor".

 

Now go here and get some cursors!

[johnnyv]

oh yeah with xfree 4.3 we can have that cool penguin cursor.

[manly]

I'm confused as to how the directory layout for cursors should be. Should I have a separate folder for each cursor in the ~/.icons directory?

 

--Andrew

[bvc]

yes

[bvc@localhost bvc]$ ls -a .icons

./               Crystal-Red/      Slick/         innerspace/

../              Crystal-Violet/   Snow-Apple/    pkgs/

3dwhite/         Crystal-Yellow/   aquadiz/       red_shadow/

Beos/            CursorCraft/      black_shadow/  stylish/

Blue/            Gentoo-test/      blue_shadow/   white_shadow/

Crystal/         Noia/             cursor_mix/    ximian-south/

Crystal-Green/   ScalableGorilla/  gold/          yellow_shadow/

Crystal-Orange/  Silver/           green_shadow/

[bvc@localhost bvc]$

[frosterrj]

Excellent!! Thanks for the script. I jsut put a link to it on my desktop, and am changing my cursors at will.

 

Robert

[Guest fubar::chi]

i don't think it's his script. I remember buchan asking me to test it (or something very similar) out on the cooker devel list