Invisible mouse pointer

[QkiZ]

After system boot on login screen mouse pointer is invisible. I am able to click to gadgets but its blind clicking. I dont know where is mouse pointer. When I'm switch to virtual console (CTRL+ALT+F1) and type

sudo service lightdm restart

command LightDM restarts and mouse pointer back to normal.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: lightdm 1.14.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-17.17-lowlatency 3.19.6
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-17-lowlatency x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun May 10 14:27:50 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-02-13 (85 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Release amd64 (20141022.1)
LightdmConfig:
 [SeatDefaults]
 allow-guest = false
SourcePackage: lightdm
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2015-04-25 (15 days ago)

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

Workaround from http://askubuntu.com/questions/381828/mouse-pointer-invisible-after-reinstalling-unity-on-top-of-gnome-in-ubuntu-13-10 doesn't work for me.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

I think it's some systemd services dependency. If system checking file system consistency while booting, lightdm launch is delayed and when its starts mouse pointer is visible.

[Jarkko Sakkinen (jarkko-sakkinen)]

I had the problem after upgrade to 15.10 development version. The problem was in the configuration files. If I did "sudo lightdm restarts" I got complains about "SeatDefaults". I changed that to "Seat:*" in various configuration files until lightdm stopped complaining. After that the mouse cursor was visible again.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

Which files you edited?

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

After changing display manager to GDM everything works good. Mouse pointer is visible. This is LightDM issue.

[Philippe Vaucher (philippe-vaucher)]

FWIW, ever since I installed the correct NVIDIA drivers this bug stopped happening. I doubt it's related but who knows.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

What you mean writing "correct"? I'm using 346.72 version.

[Pavlo Shchelokovskyy (pshchelo)]

Had same problem after 14.04 to 15.04 upgrade.
FWIW solution proposed here [1] worked for me

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false

may be that will be helpful in debugging this issue

[1] http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2252957&p=13168212#post13168212

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

Like I was posting before trick with gsettings not working for me.

[Jaakov (j-k-v)]

Affects me in wily as of today. The cursor reappears after

/etc/init.d/lightdm restart

This works unless dmesg mentions a kernel bug during boot. Solution of Pavlo does not work for me in the single case I tried.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

Jaakov can you paste your dmesg with that error?

[Jaakov (j-k-v)]

Today I had a kernel bug, which appeared at second 42 after the start, and restarting lightdm helped, contrary to my previous experience. Unfortunately, I did not save the dmesg. Thus, the kernel bug may or may not affect the mouse pointer issue. The kernel bug also does not appear in dmesg on every restart. If I see it again, I'll paste the dmesg here.

[Jaakov (j-k-v)]

But the kernel bug appeared later, after the restart and after the mouse pointer got visible. The dmesg is attached.

[Jaakov (j-k-v)]

To be more precise, the events went on as follows:
1) boot
2) observe no mouse cursor
3) switch to tty1, do dmesg (see dmesg3.out before "cut here")
4) /etc/init.d/lightdm restart
5) observe mouse cursor
6) switch to tty1, do dmesg (same output)
7) switch to lightdm (ctrl+alt+f7), log in
8) switch to tty1, do dmesg, observe kernel bug (including "cut here" and the remainder).

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

I did as you wrote. No crash during boot and login. But there is some interesting error about 40 second:

(...)
[ 40.710335] Could not create debugfs 'switch_mm' directory
[ 40.710341] Could not create debugfs 'i915_context_free' directory
[ 40.710344] Could not create debugfs 'i915_context_create' directory
[ 40.710346] Could not create debugfs 'i915_ppgtt_release' directory
[ 40.710349] Could not create debugfs 'i915_ppgtt_create' directory
[ 40.710352] Could not create debugfs 'intel_gpu_freq_change' directory
[ 40.710355] Could not create debugfs 'i915_reg_rw' directory
[ 40.710357] Could not create debugfs 'i915_flip_complete' directory
[ 40.710360] Could not create debugfs 'i915_flip_request' directory
[ 40.710363] Could not create debugfs 'i915_ring_wait_end' directory
[ 40.710366] Could not create debugfs 'i915_ring_wait_begin' directory
[ 40.710368] Could not create debugfs 'i915_gem_request_wait_end' directory
[ 40.710371] Could not create debugfs 'i915_gem_request_wait_begin' directory
[ 40.710374] Could not create debugfs 'i915_gem_request_complete' directory
(...)

[Jaakov (j-k-v)]

I have to revise the upper report a bit. On my computer, the kernel bug seems to be reproducible with the same source location. As it turned out today, it does NOT NECESSARILY come after lightdm restart. So, it may or may not be connected to the invisible cursor issue. Pasting from dmesg:

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 2597 at /build/linux-1dujk3/linux-4.2.0/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c:5269 i915_gem_track_fb+0x129/0x140 [i915]()
WARN_ON(!(old->frontbuffer_bits & frontbuffer_bits))

[Zhang Weiwu (zhangweiwu)]

Pavlo Shchelokovskyy (pshchelo) wrote on 2015-08-12:
> FWIW solution proposed here worked for me
> gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false

If it works for you, you probably had a different bug. This bug's effect start since the login screen, and as far as I know gsettings only affects the current login user.

In order to be sure, I configured my lightdm to auto-login. I intend to check if gsettings can make the pointer show up, now that culprit (login screen) is skipped. It resulted something very weird.

- Cursor would show up on the left side if I move it to the rightmost position. If I move leftward a bit, it would slip off from left edge of the screen. I could not click one of the unity tool bar icons because the cursor can go to at most left edge only, and not a little more right.
- Desktop wallpaper is not showing up. Desktop is black and blank (blank means no icons)
- Shortcut keys has no response. Super key doesn't call up HUD, and Ctrl+Shift+T doesn't call up terminal.

Effectively in this limbo status the user has nothing to do but to restart computer again. I had to manually edit /etc/lightdm.conf to prevent auto-login again.

Without autlogin, my host behaves exactly as previously described - "no pointer but click works, restart lightdm helps". By the way the desktop wall paper, HUD and desktop icons are all back.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

15.10 problem still exists.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

I think I solved the problem. Because I cant use gdm on 15.10 (black screen) I started to look for a solution. I found two solutions on disappearing mouse cursor:
1. I was disabled vt_handoff in /etc/grub.d/10_linux to see all messages when system boots. If I disable plymouth splash screen, then mouse cursor is visible in LightDM. If Plymouth is enabled and vt_handoff is disabled mouse cursor is invisible.
2. I enabled vt_handoff and Plymouth. Mouse is visible on LightDM.

[Zhang Weiwu (zhangweiwu)]

Interesting, qkiz. This is what I experimented

1. Edit /etc/default/grub

Change the line –

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

2. update grub

sudo update-grub2

3. reboot.

What I got:
1) plymouth seems to be disabled, there is no purple splash. In fact, the screen never go purple, it:
2) screen display black when lightdm started, black, with only a white movable mouse pointer.
3) Here I can type my password blindly, then the normal desktop shows up.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

I think this is different issue.

[Nancy Schorr (nancyschorr)]

What worked for me on 14.04.3 was the grub change above. Removed the "quiet splash". That alone seemed to work.

Had tried many other things including all the lightdm restarts, etc. - none of those worked.

Also went into the Displays setting and noticed it had an "internal" display and a 2nd display which was the real existing display. Turned off the "internal" display. Not sure if this had anything to do with it.

[Joe Liau (joe)]

@QkiZ
I have the issue that you described in 15.10 as well.

But, the mouse pointer actually does eventually appear about 3 minutes after login.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

I think it's different issue.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

I don't think it's a lightdm issue. I've been trying lxdm and the same issue happens there.

Might be a kernel issue: I tried mainline kernel 4.3.0 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=N;O=D (v4.3-wily) and it works flawlessly. Could also be a subtle race and running a different kernel (or dumping boot messages on the console) alters the parameters enough to make it work.

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

On Linux 4.3.0-040300 is even worse. With $vt_handoff option and without it mouse cursor is invisible on LightDM.

[Emiliano Dalla Verde Marcozzi (edvm-r)]

This happen to me too. After a fresh install of Ubuntu 15.10 i hit this bug (the mouse pointer dissapear) twice in a week. I couldn't reproduce it, it happened while i'm logged in, randomly. To 'fix it' i had to close my session and log-in again.
In my case, the mouse pointer appears on LightDM (by now).
Best,
Emiliano.

[Jay Robinson (misfit815)]

Still running 15.04 and have this as well (on, anecdotally, 50% of boots). Running "sudo service lightdm restart" addresses it (so far, 100% of the time). Let me know if there's any way in which I can help (software engineer by trade, perpetual Linux newbie).

[Luís de Sousa (luis-de-sousa)]

I am struggling with this issue since yesterday, after I run the updates on Ubuntu 14.04. So far the only workaround is to log on with a different desktop environment (e.g. Xubuntu).

[saltan (sergeisaltan)]

I have the same problem on Ubuntu 14.04 with 'wily' kernel and dual monitor configuration.

[Luís de Sousa (luis-de-sousa)]

This issue was first reported by users on 13.04 and has lasted at least to 15.10. I am presently struggling with it on Ubuntu 14.04. On this release the "gsettings set" workaround does not work, neither does logging out and logging back in. There are a number of other workarounds discussed at AskUbuntu:

http://askubuntu.com/q/626078/177437

[Jacob Page (jacob-h-page)]

I can confirm that it is probably not specifically a lightdm issue. I have Lubuntu installed and am running lxdm, and it affects me. I have found a consistent way to reproduce this; whenever my laptop comes back from being suspended, the mouse cursor disappears; returning to the login screen restores the mouse cursor, and it remains working in lxdm after logging in again.

I am running 16.04.

[LaunchpadLoginDefectReport (nagle-1)]

Still broken in Xubuntu 16.04, with a clean wipe install on an ASUS 1001PX. To reproduce:

0. Install Xubuntu, and configure the default user to have a password.
1. Power up. Log in. Cursor is present.
2. Close lid.
3. Open lid. Log in.
4. Cursor is gone.
5. CTL-ALT-F1 then CTL-ALT-F7. Cursor reappears.

Seen on two identical ASUS 1001PX machines, both totally erased and loaded with Xubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit from a USB stick with the MD5 verified.

There is only one display, the default "Laptop", known to the Displays systems setting. So this isn't a problem with the cursor moving to some nonexistent display.

This problem has a large number of hits in Google, is more than a year old here, is marked "Critical", and still no one has taken it on. This is a "don't use Linux" level problem for new users.

[John (john-r-k-redwood)]

I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on my desktop and i get the same issue, restarting lightdm fixes it, but this is a massive PITA to do every time I turn my PC on.

[John (john-r-k-redwood)]

I rolled back from 4.4.0-28-generic to 4.4.0-21-generic kernels, and now it's fine, all my audio and stuff is fine now and things aren't crashing as much - so i think the newer kernel is a bit borked.

[Yanpas (yanpaso)]

Xubuntu doesn't use unity greeter, but cursor it's still invisible after wake up. Should I open new bug?

[QkiZ (qkiz)]

I think this problem is related to kernel. Like I wrote before it's happen when I disable vt_handoff and plymouth splash screen mouse cursor appears. All this option is set in grub linux command.