[SOLVED] Breeze Dark theme, can't make cursor go away from the lock screen on

[Krezzin]

I have 24.04 installed as usual. Using Breeze Dark with the default login theme for SDDM - meaning, Kubuntu .However the lock screen has the cursor always visible, which seems like an annoying bug. Been browsing the internet for solution. I've read that it could be related to the SDDM display manager. Alas, as a Linux newbie, I'm afraid to play around with commands much for one reason > I already broke Plasma to a point the UI literally broke entirely and had to reinstall.

How I can fix that in a safe manner?

[claydoh]

SDDM is a login manager, while and the lock screen is part of Plasma itself -- they are not the same thing, and unfortunately are completely separate and unrelated components.

As to the cursor hiding after a period of time on the locck screen, you probably need Plasma 6 for that.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=432291

[Krezzin]

Hmm. You're correct. Although, shouldn't logically the cursor only pop up on the log-in screen and remain hidden on the lock screen when the computer is in idle state? I mean... I see no point in having it else. Its funny, dunno.

As for Plasma 6, excuse my lack of knowledge. System Info says my graphical platform is X11, would that work fine with 6 or I have to switch to Wayland? And what would be the fool-proof way to do the upgrade if so?

[claydoh]

Hmm. You're correct. Although, shouldn't logically the cursor only pop up on the log-in screen and remain hidden on the lock screen when the computer is in idle state? I mean... I see no point in having it else. Its funny, dunno.

Sure, hence the bug report... from the lack of comments and reports in other places, it either hasn't been a problem for most people, or no one really cared? I myself having used Plasma and KDE since forever, have never ever noted it, ever outside a mention in 2021

Which reminds me of a utility that may or may not work for you now:
https://github.com/Airblader/unclutter-xfixes

As for Plasma 6, excuse my lack of knowledge. System Info says my graphical platform is X11, would that work fine with 6 or I have to switch to Wayland? And what would be the fool-proof way to do the upgrade if so?

Yes, x11 will work fine in Plasma 6, but iirc the fix to the cursor issue is Wayland only.

You would need to install a newer version of Kubuntu or other distro to move to Plasma 6. The only upgrade path for 24.04 at this stage in its life cycle is to wait for 26.04.

[Krezzin]

I've done a full system snapshot and willing to risk it upgrade from 24.04 LTS to 25.04. I guess that fix for the cursor (goddamn, upgrading OS for 1 simple thing that is present in Windows ever since forever... come on, lol...) is present in 25.04 since its based on Plasma 6, indeed?

[Snowhog]

Why not burn 25.04 to a USB Thumbdrive and boot from that and 'test' before you go the upgrade route.

[claydoh]

I've done a full system snapshot and willing to risk it upgrade from 24.04 LTS to 25.04. I guess that fix for the cursor (goddamn, upgrading OS for 1 simple thing that is present in Windows ever since forever... come on, lol...) is present in 25.04 since its based on Plasma 6, indeed?

There is no upgrade path for 24.04 LTS to 25.04. You can't 'skip' releases, except for LTS-LTS upgrades. One could have upgraded to 24.10, then 25.04, but since 24.10 has since become EOL (last month), there is no upgrade until the LTS is out next year.

Well, I see no evidence that Ubuntu have mothballed the 24.10 repos as of yet, but I still don't recommend it. Two upgrades vs a clean install, not sure which is appropriate. I am very adventurous in terms of upgrades and trying out the risky things, but back to back upgrades, I don't like. A clean ionstall and setup may take less time, tbh.

(goddamn, upgrading OS for 1 simple thing that is present in Windows ever since forever... come on, lol...)

That utility I linked to seem to work in Plasma 5, based on a few reports..........

Is it that serious of a deal, in reality? Yes, I do get that frustration, but being on Plasma 5, there are are minimal options for this.
But how many thousands of full-time paid devs does Plasma have, again......?

[Krezzin]

Yeah, a clean install takes less time but add to that reinstalling all your apps and reconfiguring them and you're basically going to spend more time. I have about 20-25 third party apps tops installed next to base ones.

Back to the topic:

I tried a live version of 25.04 and I confirm the lockscreen cursor issue has been fixed. It's surprising for how long this bug was present in this distro and overlooked. Guess nobody uses lock screens these days. Decided not to upgrade and look for an alternative screensaver of sorts. Unsure if I'll be able to find one that doesnt need to do tons of CLI work...

P.S. I found something weirder. If you have auto lock screen enabled, meaning if you enable it in System Settings, you see the cursor bug. If you disable it and instead assign a hotkey with command "loginctl lock-session" - the bug is gone.