cursor disappears on one screen of dual monitor setup

This bug is similar to bug #492782 in that the cursor shape disappears. However, none of the work-arounds mentioned in that bug will fix this issue. When this bug occurs, changing consoles or otherwise prodding the xserver can cause the system to lock up. The only cure for this bug is to reboot.

Marking this bug as not a duplicate of bug #492782 . Attempting any work-around suggested in that bug causes the system to freeze up and then shut down. I believe the root cause here is something deeper than the video layer. The last bit of the kernel log today was:

Feb 28 10:05:50 A123501 kernel: [400832.734646] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
Feb 28 13:20:12 A123501 kernel: [412494.526923] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
Feb 28 15:06:38 A123501 kernel: [418880.025122] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: EvoCh 0 Mthd 0x0000 Data 0x00000400 (0x0002 0x01)
Feb 28 15:10:07 A123501 kernel: [419088.913403] [drm:drm_crtc_helper_set_config] *ERROR* failed to set mode on crtc ffff88021afb0800
Feb 28 15:10:53 A123501 kernel: Kernel logging (proc) stopped.

I have not been able to reproduce this issue with less than about 4 days on the kernel timer. Are there any other log files I should upload? Is there a recommended way to stress the kernel so that I can reproduce this faster than four days? I will also try the mainline kernel to see if I can reproduce it there.

I experience this as well, on 10.10, and I too am running VMWare (player). The issue happens OUTSIDE of VMWare player, e.g. the mouse only disappears on my host OS, not the VM.

This bug just occurred here on Ubuntu 10.10; never seen it before. Unlike the OP, I shut down the machine every night, so uptime hasn't even reached 6 hours yet.

I am running 10.04, with an HP laptop plus an external Dell monitor and see this issue frequently, in some cases within an hour of boot. I am not running VMware, but am running VirtualBox. But the problem is occurring in the host OS (Ubuntu 10.04). The problem appears to me to be load dependent as it typically happens when the system is quite busy.

As noted above work arounds for Bug #492782 do not work. In fact logging out causes the screen to go black and the system to not respond to any kbd/mouse input. Only reboot fixes the problem.

For me the bug seems to happen much more frequently (like within an hour of boot) when the external monitor is configured to be the "left" monitor instead of the "right" monitor.

For me, there are no obvious error messages in /var/log/messages or /var/log/Xorg.n.log for the bug. However, system performance becomes degraded and sluggish (e.g. very poor streaming audio/video) making the system unusable.

I have the same problem using Ubuntu 10.04 desktop (64 bits). No propietary drivers are in use on my system.
Cursor goes invisible almost certainly shortly after I use Remote Desktop Viewer to log into and operate remote Ubuntu machines. Regardless of how long I have been using the system, it's only minutes or some times after I start using the Remote Desktop Viewer that my mouse goes invisible.

The dmesg I see (though not sure it's definitely related):
[ 8572.514292] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: EvoCh 0 Mthd 0x0000 Data 0x00000400 (0x0002 0x01)

The workaround I've used is to turn on "Show position of pointer when the Control key is pressed" in System->Preferences->Mouse. By doing that I can see where the mouse is by pressing the Control key repeatedly whenever I need to use the pointer. It's annoying though, and I lose copy/paste functionality (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V) with some applications, so I usually have to reboot after this happens.

Have been using the Remote Desktop Viewer for several months now, and never had this problem before, started happening only about a couple of weeks ago.

Have had Ubuntu desktop 10.04 64 bits installed here for about a year. Before that I used Ubuntu desktop 32 bits (also 10.04) for several years, never had this problem before. I use Ubuntu 10.04 (32 bits) at work, and I use Remote Desktop Viewer there frequently, have never seen this problem there either.

The output of uname -a on my 64 bit desktop where I'm having this problem:
Linux raul-desktop 2.6.32-41-generic #91-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 13 11:43:55 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux

By the way, I use only one monitor, not using a dual setup, sorry if my comment doesn't apply fully enough here, hopefully it will be useful anyway.

As the original poster, I no longer use this kernel version, or 10.04. I wouldn't be able to regression test any fixes. We can close this bug, unless someone else wants to adopt it. (I don't see a "cancel" status. Is there such a thing?)

I have a similar problem on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS. Only that in my case the cursor doesn't disappear on one monitor but takes upa corrupted form (sometimes a line, other times a duplicated cursor). I would supply a screenshot but strangely enough the cursor appears perfectly fine in screengrabs and screencasts.

I am using AMD's proprietary Catalyst 13.1 and the 3.8 kernel but I've had this problem since Ubuntu 11.04.

I have exactly the same problem as Ari, running 12.04.2, cursor becomes corrupt on primary monitor.

I'm using fglrx/Catalyst 13.1 (fglrx-amdcccle-updates - 2:9.000-0ubuntu0.3) and kernel 3.2.0-48-generic.

Gordon Hopper, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/716147/comments/9 regarding you no longer use this kernel. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.