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I would like to change the mouse cursor theme that is used, both in my session and in the login screen.

For example Breeze instead of the standard one called "elementary" (similar to DMZ Black).

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The following answer uses Breeze as an example, don't forget it to replace it with the name of the theme you actually want to install.

For all users

To install an icon theme download it and move the theme directory (containing a file called index.theme or cursor.theme) to /usr/share/icons/.

Open a Terminal. First put the name of the cursor theme you want to install into the variable THEMENAME. Then set FILENAME to either index.theme or cursor.theme depending on the filename in the theme directory. 

THEMENAME=Breeze
FILENAME=index.theme

You should make sure that permissions are correct after copying the theme, so run chown -hR root:root /usr/share/icons/"$THEMENAME" (chown changes the owner of a files / directories) and chmod -R 755 /usr/share/icons/"$THEMENAME" (chmod changes permissions to read, write and execute).

Change the used theme by entering the following in Terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme "$THEMENAME"

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/"$THEMENAME"/"$FILENAME" 21

sudo update-alternatives --set x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/"$THEMENAME"/"$FILENAME"

You probably need to reboot for all changes to take effect.

Only for current user

To install an icon theme download it and move the theme directory (containing a file called index.theme or cursor.theme) to ~/.icons/.

Open a Terminal and put the name of the cursor theme you want to install into the variable THEMENAME: 

THEMENAME=Breeze

Change the used theme by entering the following in Terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme "$THEMENAME"

Related known bugs

(Pantheon) Files currently has a bug where a custom cursor theme is not properly applied.

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  • Note: For me my answer does not work in login screen and the cursor is also reset to some weird default (older, not elementary) when I log out and log back in again. Maybe someone can improve my answer?
    – quassy
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 0:12
  • quassy, perhaps 'chmod -R 755 <theme_dir>'?
    – bitseater
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 9:48
  • Was about to add that permissions should be correct after copying the theme to /usr/share/icons/, but I did that already (chmod -R 755 ./Breeze). Including chown -hR root:root ./Breeze.
    – quassy
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 12:50
  • could you be more spesific where is that ~/.icons/ directory is??
    – Hagrid Gendut
    Commented Apr 3, 2018 at 5:42
  • @HagridGendut ~ indicates that the directory is in your home folder, typing ~/.icons/ into files will take you straight there. That directory may not exist.
    – Lewis Goddard ♦
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 15:55

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