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rosco-pc/x11_cursor.md

Last active September 22, 2024 07:16
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X11 cursor on hdpi screens
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x11_cursor.md

Note: I'm now using XFCE scaling feature instead of the option below. Leave this up as I might go back to using wmx again

The default X cursor font exists both as a bitmap font (file cursor.pcf.gz) and as a Type 1 font (file cursor.pfa). The recipe provided below makes the bitmap font unavailable to the system and turns the font name cursor into an alias for the appropriately rescaled Type 1 font (via the fonts.alias file).

  • TODO: figure out how to make this permanent so sysupgrade will not overwrite the changes

  • rm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/cursor.pcf.gz to remove the bitmap font

  • mkfontdir /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/ to remove the bitmap font from the font directory.

  • Create the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11//Type1/fonts.alias with the following contents, adjusting 801 to the desired cursor size.

    echo "cursor -xfree86-cursor-medium-r-normal--0-801-0-0-p-0-adobe-fontspecific" > /usr/X11R6/lib/X11//Type1/fonts.alias

  • mkfontdir /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/ to install the new Type1 font.

  • fc-cache -r and re-login to make the Type 1 font available to the system.

adpated from: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/236159/bigger-x11-cursors-suitable-for-4k-screens

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