[SOLVED] LightDM issue with cursor theme, switch to SLiM?

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-16 20:44

Hello everybody!
I recently disabled autologin on MX-14 and first the cursor showed DMZ (White) on login screen and them on all Xsession places like desktop, panel, window decoration, window pane, Evince,... It only showed the theme I chose in settings on icons in Thunar, in browser window and LibreOffice.
I tried some fixes I found on the web: update-alternatives, put symling from sursor theme folder to default folder, create ~/.icons/<cursorTheme>/default and put a symlink there. Nothing helped. The cursor changed to DMZ (Black), for me the only wort choice compared to DMZ (White). __{{emoticon}}__
Then I enable autologin again and the issue is gone.
But I'd rather had autologin...
Should I try SLiM instead of LightDM? I don't know how to switch...
Help is appreciated! __{{emoticon}}__
eugen-b

Jerry · posted: 2015-09-16 21:21

What method did you use to disable autologin for lightdm?

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-16 21:32

Hi Jerry,
I did what I read here wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LightDM#Enabling_autologin

etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

[Seat:*]
pam-service=lightdm
pam-autologin-service=lightdm-autologin
autologin-user=username
autologin-user-timeout=0
session-wrapper= etc/lightdm/Xsession

# groupadd -r autologin
# gpasswd -a username autologin

But that was the first time, after installing MX-14. This time I first commented autologin-user lines and then uncommented them.

A good idea though to have a second look at the Wiki, because I see there s.th. about migrating from SLiM which I mybe could use to migrate to SLiM. It sais

Migrating from SLiM
Move the contents of
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc"
linktext was:"xinitrc"
====================================
to
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xprofile"
linktext was:"xprofile"
====================================
, removing the call to start the window manager or desktop environment.

Following the xprofile link I find that I need to add some lines to

~/.xinitrc and etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

#!/bin/sh

# Make sure this is before the 'exec' command or it won't be sourced.
[ -f etc/xprofile ] && source etc/xprofile
[ -f ~/.xprofile ] && source ~/.xprofile
...

in order to get SLiM running with xprofile, which is normally used by LightDM. Hmm, looks not too complicated, but I'm sceptical. And I would appreciate to read your oppinion first, Jerry, before I install SLiM. And maybe there is a possibility to resolve the curser issue in LightDM. From the web I got the impression that this is an issue which is not resolved since 2006.

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 08:46

It's crazy, I've somehow lost my xfdesktop. Pink background, no rightclick menu. I didn't do anything after enabling autologin.
The problem is probably described here, but the solution doesn't work:

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LightDM#Xresources_not_being_parsed_correctly"
linktext was:"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li ... _correctly"
====================================

I don't have the file etc/lightdm/Xsession

Update: I disabled autologin to see that pink screen is still there after logging in with the greeter. The cursor is DMZ (Black) again. So I eanbled autologin again.
An additional info: When I log out I see my custom greeter background, I don't know whether it is normal.
Another observation: My custom Close button which normally bring up the logout dialog after closing all windows doesn't trigger this logout dialog anymore.

Jerry · posted: 2015-09-17 10:49

This is weird stuff you are seeing! Can you please post the output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -G

I have switched from autologin and back the way you do many times with never a problem, so not sure what is going on.

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 12:05

Jerry wrote:This is weird stuff you are seeing! Can you please post the output of:
Code: Select all
inxi -G
I have switched from autologin and back the way you do many times with never a problem, so not sure what is going on.

Sure:

Code: Select all

$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: VIA VX800/VX820 Chrome 9 HC3 Integrated Graphics
           Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 driver: openchrome
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x209)
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5

I guess it could have started because of my experiment with LXDE session. I uninstalled the LXDE stuff completely with Synaptic. Then if I remember correctly I performed my btrfs snapshot swap. If not I still could do that. The snapshot dates back to time before LXDE experiment. But there might be rather something wrong in my home folder and that folder I don't have a snapshot of (a good idea for the future).

I have another suspect: Recently I changed my xorg.conf:

Code: Select all

Section"Device"
    Identifier   "Configured Video Device"
    Driver       "openchrome"
#    Option       "AccelMethod""xaa"      #these two lines were active before
#    Option        "XaaNoImageWriteRect" #then I added the following 4 lines, source was Openchrome website
    Option       "AccelMethod""exa"
    Option       "ExaScratchSize""8192"
    Option       "MaxDRIMem""16384"
    Option       "MigrationHeuristic""greedy"
    Option       "DRI"   "true"
    Option       "ActiveDevice""DFP"
EndSection

Jerry · posted: 2015-09-17 12:38

Yeah, this is sure not going to happen with a default install! And I don't believe that lightdm has anything to do with it, though I could be wrong.

Why don't you try using the old xorg.conf and see if that takes care of things with a reboot. I am not an expert in Xorg stuff, so will have to let someone else pick this up if the older version doesn't eliminate the problem.

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 12:50

I've rebooted with old xorg.conf setting but still have a pink background. I can tell that this pink background was there before, but the normal background would appear after 1-2 seconds. Now it not appearing. Perhaps I should add xfdesktop to autostart, it is not there and it is not in task manager list. Maybe it is that simple?

I issued

Code: Select all

$ xfdesktop --reload

** (xfdesktop:3177): WARNING **: Thumbnailer failed calling GetFlavors

and got a wallpaper as well as the rightclick menu.
I closed the terminal and the wallpaper disappeared for half a second and appeared again.

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 13:04

Pink screen issue is solved, Jerry! Yahoo!! __{{emoticon}}__
I checked the"save session box" on logout and the screen came up with wall paper and rightclick menu on reboot.
Further investigation about xfdesktop in autostart must be done anyway if I want a login screen.

Update: The wallpaper is even changing as expected every 10 minutes.
xfdesktop --reload --display is now in Task Manager's list of processes. Do you think it is a good idea to have xfdesktop command in autostart?

Jerry · posted: 2015-09-17 13:14

Sounds like you're way down in the muck at this point. Maybe somebody here has a better idea, but I'd recommend you post the problem on the Xfce Forum, where there are some real experts:

forum.xfce.org

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 13:33

Jerry wrote:Sounds like you're way down in the muck at this point. Maybe somebody here has a better idea, but I'd recommend you post the problem on the Xfce Forum, where there are some real experts:

forum.xfce.org

__{{emoticon}}__ If a question was easy I wouldn't have posted it. But it is a good idea to register there and I did it now. You actually helped a lot, because you made me start thinking. I will post here if adding xfdesktop to autostart applications resolves the issue with inconsistent cursor theme. Thanks for taking your time for me, Jerry! __{{emoticon}}__

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 15:08

Update: Setting up xfdesktop --reload as a startup application makes it appear a second right after the pink background screen, but the DMZ (Black) cursor is still there as described before. Creating symlinks as described before doesn't do anything. I'll be posting this issue on Xfce forum.

eugen-b · posted: 2015-09-17 19:14

I solved the problem! I wrote the following on Xfce Forum, so why not copy it here:

ToZ: I downloaded and installed the Debian 7.6 Xfce cd into a VM and gave it a try. You are right in that the /usr/share/icons/default directory didn't exist. I created it, ran the install command and it worked. Here are the steps (specific for Debian 7.6):

1. Download and extract the Pulse Glass cursor theme (
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://gnome-look.org/content/download.php?content=124442&id=1&tan=13287273&PHPSES"
linktext was:"http://gnome-look.org/content/download. ... 3ec09a706d"
====================================
).
2. With root privileges, copy the Pulse-Glass folder to /usr/share/icons
3. With root privileges, create the /usr/share/icons/default directory.
3. Settings Manager >> Mouse >> Theme, and select the Pulse-Glass theme.
4. Create an alternatives link. From a terminal window:
Code: Select all
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/Pulse-Glass/cursor.theme 51
5. Select Pulse-Glass as the default X cursor theme:
Code: Select all
sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme
...and select the Pulse-Glass theme.

6. Log out and back in again for it to take effect everywhere.

Hi ToZ!
I did the first 3 steps but the fourth step gives following error message:
Code: Select all
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/oxy-orchid/cursor.theme 51
update-alternatives: error: cannot stat file 'etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme': Too many levels of symbolic links
The same error occurs with other mouse themes.
This is happening on my MX-14 machine. There are really some symlinks in the theme folder, but this seems to be normal.
Ok, I checked the file etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme and it is a damaged symlink accordding to rightclick->Properties.
How is the file supposed to be when it's not broken?

I [SOLVED] the problem! I checked that the symlink etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme points to either cursor.theme or index.theme file in the chosen icon theme folder. So I backed it up and created a new symlink. Then issued the command in point 4 which gave some errors, s.th. about broken link and manual mode (I didn't save, sorry!), then issued the command in point 5 which asked me to choose the theme. I chose the manually created file for my preferred theme. The correct file was created etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme was created. After reboot I got the right cursor everywhere on the screen!
I hope this helps others with a similar problem.
And thank you, ToZ!

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=38783#p38783"
linktext was:"http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=38783#p38783"
====================================

Jerry · posted: 2015-09-17 20:10

Well done!