Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Argolance · Last edited by Argolance on Wed 08 Aug 2012, 04:39; edited 2 times in total

Hello,
All is in the title: does any command exist to hide the pointer of the mouse during a special process and to show it again when finished?
Thank you.

Cordilalement.

ETP · Joined: 19 Oct 2010 Posts: 310 Location: UK

Argolance · Posted: Sat 04 Aug 2012, 06:47 Post subject:

Hello,
Thank you!
Looking inside /root/.xinitrc, I already noticed that it was possible to hide the pointer when not moving using "unclutter":

Dave_G · Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 459

Hi

A very interesting question.
Are you referring to the X mouse cursor while Xwin is starting up or
the actual arrow once it's completely loaded?

Argolance · Posted: Sat 04 Aug 2012, 12:10 Post subject:

Hello

I think I am...

Dave_G · Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 459

I've never had reason not to show it but now that you mention it,
it's an interesting exercise which I will try.

Will experiment a bit later on and report back.

Argolance · Posted: Sat 04 Aug 2012, 12:17 Post subject:

OK! thank you...

Dave_G · Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 459

OK, after a bit of research on my Puppy4.3.1 running jwm:

The big X we see on a black background whilst the window manager (jwm) is loading, which is what I assume
you don't want is actually being generated by the X_server and is
displayed until a Windows Manager takes over which then displays
the background, task bar, default mouse cursor and so on.
In my case the Windows Manager is JWM.

To see what I mean, log out of X then once on the CLI type:

technosaurus · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 3843

Actually I have shown that you can boot to X with jwm in ~1s. It would be useful to change the mouse cursor to a blank while the "console" stuff loads in rxvt. Though mine is an extreme example, it is common for a whole set of apps to load after the wm is up. Iirc xcb had an example that changes the cursor, but it used the numeric reference to the glyph... makes the example hard to find even when you have found it. It toggled between a hand pointing and an arrow cursor, so you may just need to replace it with a blank glyph(and eliminate the other example code)

Argolance · Posted: Sun 05 Aug 2012, 07:22 Post subject:

Hello,
Thank you.
@technosaurus

Dave_G · Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 459

Argolance · Posted: Sun 05 Aug 2012, 13:15 Post subject:

Hello Dave_G,
I am actually working on the next "Desktop Environment" of Toutou LINUX, the French version of Puppy 5.3 that will soon be ready: This welcome screen comes with it!

Cordialement.

Dave_G · Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 459

Hi Argolance

Ok, why not have a look to see exactly what is generating the welcome screen?
Is it a picture or a combination of picture and text?
If it's part of the Windows Manager, perhaps there are scripting options
in a file to manipulate the welcome screen.

Failing that, depending on the sequence of events, you could try and
make a new "empty" mouse cursor, there are tools available such as
xcursorgen
You could also have a look at Pcursor although I'm not sure if it's compatible
with your Puppy Version.

I will look further as time permits.

Argolance · Posted: Mon 06 Aug 2012, 13:55 Post subject:

Hello Dave_G,

Dave_G · Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 459

Hi Argolance

If it's just a gtkdialog script showing picture/s and text, then why don't you
use the pgm called unclutter which hides the mouse cursor after a certain
time of inactivity which you can make very short with the -idle switch

Just remember to load unclutter before the welcome screen and to kill it
after or it will keep on hiding your mouse cursor.

To kill unclutter, I think this will suffice: