Problem Description:
I am UN-decided about the proper form of request for what is a feature to most but a Usability Problem for typical age related eye degradation and wearers of glasses especially when using large screen monitors.
Pressing the the Left or Right control does not flash the cursor when lost on a large display.
In my case a 42" display, 81-year old eyes, tri-focal glasses and visually small cursor.
The cursor often is hidden by my wire thin glasses’ frames or in my blurry peripheral vision.
Moving cursor often produces a blur but once movement is stopped it is out of focus or blurry enough to not be recognized. Also it can be hidden behind where the display frame wraps over some edge pixels.
A selection for turning on the shortcut key to flash the cursor is available in Ubuntu 24.04 in the Access menu, apparently other distro’s but not in Wayland [Ubuntu Studio]
I am not sure the best way to request this be added to the Wayland or Ubuntu Studio Accessibility menu.
For those with declining peripheral vision, thick glasses’ frames and disabled it is a definite accessibility use problem.
For those with normal vision it could be an UN-missed feature. Thus my confusion.
What I’ve Tried:*
I Tried using the larger cursor option but found the cursor even hiding desired screen button or menu entry.
There have been help requests both in and out of Ask Ubuntu for how to turn a flashing cursor on but the responses involve more complex programming skill than I am afforded. Or apps recommended that have been used with other distro’s with mixed results and I found none of that description in Ubuntu Software and Ubuntu Studio Discover.
Before Posting:
No similar problem statements or requests have been returned in a search for " visually locating curser in Wayland"
Relevant System Information:
Operating System: Ubuntu Studio 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-86-lowlatency (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 24 Ă— AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor
Memory: 31.0 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080/PCIe/SSE2
Manufacturer: MicroElectronics
Product Name: G905
System Version: 1.0
I have an 86 year old friend with poor vision (macular degeneration in the one “seeing” eye). Although he is using Windows, I think the same can be enacted in Linux. He has his cursor about twice the normal size but also predominately black to make it easier to find with a mouse shake to locate it.
I am using Ubuntu Studio 24.10 with KDE and the breeze theme myself and my cursor is a solid black and I have my screen background generally white and I see that I can make the cursor much bigger if I want (Sizes for this theme are: 12 through to 72)
During a search I found this:
I use KDE version 5.6 and in order for mouse tracking to work I actually need to do the following:
Go to the System settings.
search “Track mouse”, it should be in the “Desktop effects” submenu.
Enable it by ticking the checkbox.
Mouse over the Track mouse and then click on the “configure” which should appear as settings icon on the left.
As shortcut, I have unchecked “meta” and everything else. Then I clicked “none” to set a shortcut. Then I pressed the F12 key.
There are a few other interesting accessibility options that you might find useful.
Hey! Thanks a bunch!
I had to play with the settings a bit [20.04] and found the defaults do not apply to the number pad.
I had to UN-check the default for each below
and put in a custom shortcut.
I discovered the [Meta]+[Num++] combination while writing this.
The windows magnifier drove me crazy, this magnifier does not require loosing half the screen.
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
Column 4
These worked
Global
Global Alt
Cursor locate
[Ctrl]+[J]
It’s Fantastic.
Cursor locate off
[Ctrl]+[J]
Magnify in
[Meta]+[Pg Up]
[Meta]+[Num++]
Magnify out
[Meta]+[Pg Dn]
[Meta]+[Num±]
Magnify off
[Meta]+[Num+0]
[Meta]+[Num+0]
Finding a [Ctrl]+ letter that would not interfere with shortcuts of the open app underneath the cursor was a challenge. Between GnuCash, LibreOffice, Files, Dolphin and Evolution “J” seems the safest.
After doing some searching in Ubuntu 24.04 help and the Studio help I am not sure but you and I may have discovered a bunch of UN-documented Features.
The title “Track Mouse” is problematic in that like other searchers of Ubuntu 24.04 and Studio helps I mine was for “Locate Mouse” or “mouse” which produced only questions and no answers. “Track Mouse” as in tracking a foot print trail would not have occurred without your help
Again Thanks.