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My mouse pointer has vanished (though the mouse is usable) and I have a multi-day calculation in progress on my Ubuntu 15.04 computer. So, how could I try to get my pointer back without losing my current session?

I have tried the following command but nothing changed:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false
muru
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d3pd
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  • Try sudo service lightdm restart – Liso Oct 01 '15 at 03:18
  • @Liso Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, this approach kills the session, which is something I mentioned in the question shouldn't happen. – d3pd Oct 01 '15 at 22:52

1 Answers1

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The following procedure appears to work in Ubuntu 15.04. The X Server communicates with programs via the network socket localhost:0. The environment variable DISPLAY can be set to this socket, then, on resetting Unity, this socket can be picked up for communications again. So, on encountering an interface problem such as a missing mouse pointer or a frozen display, something like the following procedure could be attempted:

  • Access tty1: Ctrl+Alt+F1
  • Set the environment variable DISPLAY: DISPLAY=:0
  • Export the environment variable DISPLAY: export DISPLAY
  • Reset Unity: sudo unity --replace
snoop
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d3pd
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