First step: Download the cursors from the following page GTK2 Themes - /s/Mate In the cursors section on the left side you can choose from many, the one you like the most.
Second step: Unzip the file and move or copy the directory to the following path with root privileges.
To move:
In
x-terminal-emulator:sudo mv -r 'directory-cursor' /usr/share/icons
To copy:
x-terminal-emulator:sudo cp -r 'directory-cursor' /usr/share/icons
This step does not work if you decide to put the cursor directory in the /home/user/.icons
Third step: Right click on the desktop, select 'change desktop background'. Now we go to the theme option and in the customize section choose the mouse pointer that we downloaded, moved or copied in the path of the second step.
Fourth step: Edit the x-cursor-theme file.
With root privileges with your favorite text editor execute the following command:
x-terminal-emulator:sudo nano /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme
which contains the default cursor matte as in this example:
[Icon Theme]
Inherits=mate
Change "mate" to the cursor name you downloaded, moved or copied and chose in the third step.
Fifth step: reboot the system
Note: I could not get the cursor to apply also in applications running snap. As an example I took the firefox browser in Ubuntu mate 22.04 version which only comes in this type of package and which canonical manages it from its repositories without any other option, I don't know the reasons why now it only comes in snap.
The tests were run from my machine with Ubuntu 21.10 and Ubuntu 22.04 from a virtual machine.
If anyone knows of a way to make the cursor also apply to applications running snap packages let me know.
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