After using Freya I have discovered there is an issue when dragging and dropping icons. After that, the icon combines with the mouse pointer and moves with it.
I have found that this issue can be solved by going to the lock screen and logging in again.
I'd like to have a permanent solution.
Update kernel and X to vivid fix this for me. This became possible after Ubuntu 14.04.3 release. More info on Ubuntu Wiki.
Update:
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-core-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-vivid libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-vivid
Warning! Be careful and attentive to this, the system can fail. If you use apps with 32-bit libs (Skype, Steam, Wine), first remove them and install again after update. Check packages that will be removed before pressing Y. In my case, everything went well and it looks like this:
maxim@ProBook:~$ sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-core-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-vivid libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-vivid
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libegl1-mesa-lts-vivid libgbm1-lts-vivid libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-vivid
libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-vivid libglapi-mesa-lts-vivid libgles1-mesa-lts-vivid
libgles2-mesa-lts-vivid libllvm3.6 libxatracker2-lts-vivid
linux-headers-3.19.0-25 linux-headers-3.19.0-25-generic
linux-headers-generic-lts-vivid linux-image-3.19.0-25-generic
linux-image-extra-3.19.0-25-generic linux-image-generic-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-input-evdev-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-mouse-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-input-wacom-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-cirrus-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-mach64-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-mga-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-neomagic-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-r128-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-savage-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-sisusb-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-tdfx-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-vesa-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-vmware-lts-vivid
Suggested packages:
fdutils linux-lts-vivid-tools xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi
gpointing-device-settings touchfreeze firmware-linux
Recommended packages:
libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-vivid
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-utopic libegl1-mesa-lts-utopic libgbm1-lts-utopic
libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-utopic libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic
libglapi-mesa-lts-utopic libgles1-mesa-lts-utopic libgles2-mesa-lts-utopic
libopenvg1-mesa-lts-utopic libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-utopic
libxatracker2-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-core-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-input-evdev-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-input-mouse-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-input-wacom-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-cirrus-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-mach64-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-mga-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-modesetting-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-neomagic-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-r128-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-savage-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-sisusb-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-tdfx-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-vesa-lts-utopic
xserver-xorg-video-vmware-lts-utopic
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libegl1-mesa-lts-vivid libgbm1-lts-vivid libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-vivid
libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-vivid libglapi-mesa-lts-vivid libgles1-mesa-lts-vivid
libgles2-mesa-lts-vivid libllvm3.6 libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-vivid
libxatracker2-lts-vivid linux-generic-lts-vivid linux-headers-3.19.0-25
linux-headers-3.19.0-25-generic linux-headers-generic-lts-vivid
linux-image-3.19.0-25-generic linux-image-extra-3.19.0-25-generic
linux-image-generic-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-core-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-evdev-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-input-mouse-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-input-wacom-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-cirrus-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-mach64-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-mga-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-neomagic-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-r128-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-savage-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-sisusb-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-tdfx-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-vivid xserver-xorg-video-vesa-lts-vivid
xserver-xorg-video-vmware-lts-vivid
0 upgraded, 44 newly installed, 39 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 80.5 MB of archives.
After this operation, 308 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
EDIT: This has been fixed in the latest release of elementary OS. Please download and install the latest release from our home page.
I've voted to close this as a duplicate of the How to Report an Issue question.
This is a pretty well known bug and it affects Ubuntu as well as elementary OS. The Ubuntu hardware team is hard at work on this issue, but there is no permanent fix available at the moment. If there was, it would have gone out as an update already :)
You can follow the issue in Launchpad
Hopefully there will be a fix available along with the new hardware stack in August of 2015.
On Launchpad the following fixes had been suggested:
Fixing this problem is rather too easy. Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and use the following command:
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false
Source: http://itsfoss.com/invisible-mouse-cursor-ubuntu-1310/
Or alternatively:
Actually. gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false didn't work for me. But as soon as I changed that false to true, it was fixed.
Source: https://bugs.launchpad.net/elementaryos/+bug/1430587/comments/9
Although the answer is clear ("its a bug!") the workaround might come handy. For some reason moving cursor to the bottom-right corner erases this ghost following my pointer. Not much of a solution but still much better than logging off. Hope it helps someone.
As a workaround, I use the Switch Display button (F4 or my laptop) to get back to normal.
I don't think there is a permanent fix to this bug (that was already reported here and here).
Comments under the ubuntu bug say that an upgrade above kernel 3.16 may fix it, while another comment denies this; other comments say that installing xserver-xorg may also be a solution.
I have not tested these possible fixes.
I found that the only kind of permanent solution is to keep icon zoom at 1. Anything greater exposes you to the bug.
Try this solution proposed by dromnia86 on https://www.reddit.com/r/elementaryos/comments/34dm4t/fixrestart_corrupted_mouse_after_dragging/
It worked nicely for my machine.
sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection
