change mouse cursor appearance

Jod

Re: How to hide/disable mouse cursor in RetroPie?

Hey, I'm running RetroPi on a piboy dmg and I don't think a proper desktop is installed (startx just shows a black screen with a cursor).

Is there a way to change the default black cursor to another one using commands? Like a 1px dot or even something invisible?
I only found guides on how to do it via desktop but not via terminal.

And will those changes affect any emulators that run their own gui (no lr- basically, like steam, ppsspp or drastic).

Thanks in advance. （╹◡╹）

mitu

When does the mouse cursor show up - what problem are you trying to solve ?
Please also add some info about your setup, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

Jod

Thanks, I read those, but since my question was relatively generic, I didn't deem them too necessary.

I'm trying to get rid of annoying mouse cursors in non-retroarch emulators like drastic. Since the piboy doesn't have any peripherals it's tedious to always connect one just to move the cursor away.

OS details will follow shortly but i know it's a 4b model.

Jod

Here is an example screenshot of the issue.

In PC gaming it is a common technique to just change the cursor to something invisible (or smaller).
That Raspberry cursor has to come from somewhere. But I did not find anything related to where you can set it via terminal (only some GUI guides).

It would already help me to know where that cursor comes from (file location), so i can tinker with it.

Some Specs:
Hardware : BCM2711
Revision : c03112
Serial : 100000001041dd49
Model : Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.2
Distributor ID: Raspbian
Description: Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release: 10
Codename: buster
RetroPie from Thu Nov 26 00:41:58 2020 +0000
EmulationStation Version 2.9.6rp, built Nov 4 2020 - 15:12:32
Emulator: Nintendo DS drastic version r2.8.0.4

mitu

It would already help me to know where that cursor comes from (file location), so i can tinker with it.

The cursor comes from the X server (xorg-server), when an X11 application is started.

Hardware : BCM2711
...

That's not the info asked in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first, though I assumed you're running on a Pi4. What version of RetroPie are you using ? How did you install it ?

mitu

Try updating the RetroPie-Setup script now and then re-install DraStic. See if the cursor still appears when starting a game.

Jod

@mitu holy cow, it actually worked. Them guys are really quick, seeing how I installed the emu only last week.

Thanks :)