Moved to XLibre, everything seems to work except cursor. Since scrot -p renders cursor as it should be, I had to take photo from my phone to show what's happening. My setup was the same for ages and working well. I am using startx.
In .xinit I have:
xrdb ~/.Xresources # X resource database
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr # Cursor on empty desktop
In .Xresources:
Xcursor.theme: "Bibata Red"
Xcursor.size: 32
Switching cursor back and forth with lxappearance, each cursor is 'squashed' as on screenshot, along Y axis, upper half being cursor 1/2 high, bottom half containing vertical lines. On screenshot lxapperance shows how cursor should look like (along the top), and how it looks like, bit below (squashed with lines). Restart doesn't help.
Forgot:
- I am using picom but with or without it cursor is the same.
- I am using dwm.
Are you using Nouveau with the modesetting driver? In that case, the cursor being broken is a known bug, but I'm pretty sure it's a bug on XOrg as well.
In case you're using Nouveau, if you have xf86-video-nouveau installed, that might not work because that package is compiled for XOrg, and it might fail initialization with XLibre, which will fallback to modesetting. You have to install xlibre-xf86-video-nouveau instead.
I have installed xlibre-xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.18.1-1.1 and all xorg packages replaced with XLibre counterparts. Switching back to xorg and cursor is back to normal.
Just to confirm, you are on Nvidia, and you are using the Nouveau driver, the one built into Linux, right?
If you don't know which driver you're using, you can run "lspci -k | grep -A3 VGA".
I have that laptop with hybrid AMD/NVIDIA cards:
❯ lspci -k | grep -A3 VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q] (rev a1)
DeviceName: NVIDIA Graphics Device
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 88dd
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
--
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c6)
DeviceName: Onboard IGD
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 88dd
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
List of xorg packages:
xf86-input-libinput
xf86-input-vmmouse
xf86-video-amdgpu
xf86-video-ati
xf86-video-dummy
xf86-video-fbdev
xf86-video-intel
xf86-video-nouveau
xf86-video-sisusb
xf86-video-vesa
xf86-video-vmware
xf86-video-voodoo
xorg-server
xorg-server-common
Replaced with same list of XLibre packages:
xlibre-xf86-input-libinput 1.5.0.1-1.3
xlibre-xf86-input-vmmouse 13.2.0.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-amdgpu 23.0.0.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-ati 22.0.0.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-dummy 0.4.1.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-fbdev 0.5.1.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-intel 3.0.0.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.18.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-sisusb 0.9.7.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-vesa 2.6.0.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-vmware 13.4.0.1-1.1
xlibre-xf86-video-voodoo 1.2.6.1-1.1
xlibre-xserver 25.0.0.4-1
xlibre-xserver-common 25.0.0.4-1
Probably I'm just wrong and the Nvidia cursor bag is only in XLibre, or maybe it's a different bug entirely. If it's the former, the fix will come, but it's probably not gonna happen in the 25.0.0.x series, 25.0.1.x should enable modesetting with dmabuf for Nvidia proprietary and fix the bug.
May I see the XLibre startup log? It's in ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log (which XOrg has overwritten if you're currently in an XOrg session, so you should reboot into an XLibre one).
I'm on proprietary 575.64.03 w/ GTX 1060 6GB on i3wm + picom and my cursor is fine, so it must be nouveau related bug.
EDIT: Adding picture:
(https://i.imgur.com/0JrPNfy.png)
[shoun@shoun-zlom ~]$ yay -Qs xlibre
local/xlibre-xf86-input-elographics 1.4.4.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org Elographics TouchScreen input driver
local/xlibre-xf86-input-evdev 2.11.0.1-1.2 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org evdev input driver
local/xlibre-xf86-input-libinput 1.5.0.1-1.3 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of the generic input driver for the X.Org server based on libinput
local/xlibre-xf86-input-synaptics 1.10.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org Synaptics driver for notebook touchpads
local/xlibre-xf86-input-vmmouse 13.2.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org VMWare Mouse input driver
local/xlibre-xf86-input-void 1.4.2.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org void input driver
local/xlibre-xf86-input-wacom 1.2.3.1-1.7 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org Wacom tablet driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-amdgpu 23.0.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org amdgpu video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-ati 22.0.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org ati video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-dummy 0.4.1.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org dummy video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-fbdev 0.5.1.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of framebuffer video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-intel 3.0.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
Libre fork of X.Org Intel i810/i830/i915/945G/G965+ video drivers
local/xlibre-xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.18.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org Open Source 3D acceleration driver for nVidia cards
local/xlibre-xf86-video-qxl 0.1.6.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org X11 qxl video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-sisusb 0.9.7.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.org SiS USB video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-vesa 2.6.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org vesa video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-vmware 13.4.0.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.org vmware video driver
local/xlibre-xf86-video-voodoo 1.2.6.1-1.1 (xlibre-drivers)
XLibre fork of X.Org 3dfx Voodoo1/Voodoo2 2D video driver
local/xlibre-xserver 25.0.0.5-1 (xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org X server
local/xlibre-xserver-common 25.0.0.5-1 (xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org Xorg server common files
local/xlibre-xserver-devel 25.0.0.5-1 (xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org development files for the X.Org X server
local/xlibre-xserver-xephyr 25.0.0.5-1 (xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org nested X server that runs as an X application
local/xlibre-xserver-xnest 25.0.0.5-1 (xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org nested X server that runs as an X application
local/xlibre-xserver-xvfb 25.0.0.5-1 (xlibre)
XLibre fork of X.Org virtual framebuffer X server
[shoun@shoun-zlom ~]$ Xorg -version
XLibre X Server 1.25.0
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: Linux shoun-zlom 6.15.6-zen1-1-zen #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 11 Jul 2025 05:20:26 +0000 x86_64
Current version of pixman: 0.46.2
Before reporting problems, check https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
to make sure that you have the latest version.
I have a laptop with Nvidia card, using nouveau driver. The cursor works fine.
Remove the Xcursor lines in .Xresources file and tyy to set the cursor theme with lxapperance-gtk3.
What is the current thing to upload Xorg.0.log somewhere? Pastebin doesn't allow uploads and I can't find a way to attach log to this message? Oh and textbin wants me to remove all 'XVideo' references from the log which is full of them...
@calvinh With lxapperance or lxapperance-gtk3, I have several cursor themes and as soon as I select any I see squashed left ptr pointer for that theme, with lines, same as on screenshot above.
As far as I'm concerned, any random file sharing site, or just copy-pasting the log into a code block in a reply will work, but there is an official Artix pastebin ( https://paste.artixlinux.org/ ), or you can also use wgetpaste (it's in extra).
Since we're at it, can you post two logs? One for the XOrg session and one for the XLibre session, so we can see if we can spot any differences.
That's terrible idea, this will set "gtk-cursor-theme-name" in "~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini"
only, whereas setting "Xcursor.theme" from "~/.Xresources" will force every single UI toolkit and framework to be universally set to this particular custom mouse pointer. Applying cursors in Xorg was always a mess, and this is the only proper way to have this consistently enforced. Also making sure to have proper files here:
~/.icons/default/cursor.theme:
[Icon Theme]
Inherits=<custom_cursor_name>
~/.icons/default/index.theme:
[Icon Theme]
Name=<custom_cursor_name>
Where
<custom_cursor_name> specifically points to the name of the folder /usr/share/icons/
<custom_cursor_name> and/or ~/.icons/
<custom_cursor_name>Of course, this will vary on fully fledged DEs, but with WMs such as i3wm or dwm, this is the only way.
lxappearance sets themes (including cursor) and icons systemwide. No need to set them in .Xresources.
Please, do not derail the discussion: the cursor theme is clearly being selected just fine, this is just a render bug, and I'm pretty sure it's exactly this bug: https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/pull/373#issuecomment-3058882486 , but it just renders wrong in a different way because it's modesetting on top of Nouveau instead of modesetting on top of Nvidia.
I would agree with
@Pragma Once , this is clearly XLibre/nouveau problem that has to be waited on. Sadly I can't switch to XLibre yet but will try occasionally in the future. Should I make topic solved?
Hi, I am one of the bug wranglers at XLibre. Could you please file a bug report at [Issues · X11Libre/xf86-video-nouveau](https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-video-nouveau/issues)? That way there is a chance to help you and solve the problem.
Done
@callmetango , https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-video-nouveau/issues/4
Anything I can help with just let me know there. Thanks.
You're welcome and thank you!