Comment 40 for bug 157447

Solved this problem as follows. Now have a non-default theme in place (redglass) with a larger cursor (48, not default 18).

Thanks to all above for ideas.

The solution below was tested on Ubuntu Studio 16.04 with XFCE 4.12.2 and all package updates installed.

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XFCE window manager offers an option to set a non-default mouse theme. I use this to set a large red pointer. The pointer reverts to the system default theme in many applications.

Suggested solution from this forum:

As root, edit

 /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme

to change a directive from the default to desired new default theme;

 Inherits=redglass

Restart XFCE.

Redglass theme remains in place reliably but the cursor is at the default size of 18 rather than the larger 48 I need.

Open Configuration Editor & set

 /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/cursor_size = 48

Right click on this directive & choose ‘Set to default’ (requires root privilege).

Restart XFCE

If the altered cursor_size directive is not set as default the cursor is sometimes at sie 18 and sometimes at 48, depending on the application being viewed (Ok in OpenOffice, small in most other apps e.g. Thunar, MySQL Workbench, Ardour4, Sound Converter. Some programs respect the customised theme & others only its default version. Hence the importance of setting the altered cursor_size as a default. I do not know where this default value is stored.key