No mouse cursor visible on VirtualBox (or VMware)

[theothermatt]

• sway version v20190228-33-g5adaafc004 (Mar 2 2019, branch 'master')

• Debug Log: https://gist.github.com/theothermatt/78176f95fba69c19fa5040b228c35190

• Configuration File: Default (/etc/sway/config)

As requested, I'm reporting here something I originally reported on the Alpine
Linux mailing list (https://lists.alpinelinux.org/alpine-devel/6462.html).

Upgrading to 1.0-rc4 in the Alpine testing repository
(https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/testing/x86_64/sway) results in
having no mouse cursor visible. The mouse still functions, but is of course
pretty unusable.

This is running on Virtualbox, which as far as I can tell only recently (v6.0
onwards) gained the ability to run Sway (and probably other Wayland stuff), via
the VMSVGA graphics controller.

Hopefully what I've provided here is helpful, but please let me know if you
need anything else.

[IComplainInComments]

Im also experiencing this issue using Vmware and Open-vm-tools. The mouse works, but no cursor wants to appear.

I've tried basic troubleshooting and nothing is working. Including possible solutions for Wayland, Xwayland, and Xorg (that have/had this issue as well).

[emersion]

Can you run drm_info on your host?

This is probably due to swaywm/wlroots#1526

[IComplainInComments]

EDIT: Let me link it for you...
EDIT 2: @emersion https://github.com/IComplainInComments/Output

[IComplainInComments]

Looks like adding WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS=1 fixes the issue.

So it looks like this problem is being caused due to a Rendering issue with Wayland and the Driver.

[theothermatt]

Output of drm_info: https://gist.github.com/theothermatt/710cd42e559a5d361fe0890c5d239161

[theothermatt]

Also, I can confirm that using WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS=1 fixes the issue, albeit with a slightly laggy mouse, which is expected I guess.

[jnschulze]

There's a related discussion at https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/18239#comment:14 . According to the latest post, vmsvga doesn't support hardware cursor planes yet.

[theothermatt]

An update - Virtualbox are saying things are fixed on their end (https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/18239#comment:17).

I'm still seeing this problem with sway 1.0 on Alpine I'm afraid. Let me know if you need any more information or if I can help in any way.

[xelra]

I'm also seeing this issue in VirtualBox 6.0.8. They say they fixed it with 6.0.4. Did they really fix it and there's an additional issue in sway?

EDIT:
I've installed GNOME, knowing it uses Wayland, just to see whether it shows a mouse pointer. And yes, it does. I also talked to someone on Fedora who also doesn't have this issue with VirtualBox.
So I guess it's really fixed on VirtualBox' side.

I'm on Arch Linux, btw.

[JSamir]

I've got the same issue with Ubuntu 19.04 and VirtualBox 6.0.8, using VMSVGA as graphics controller in VirtualBox.

[riquito]

Sorry for the "me too", I don't know if it's any useful to you but... vmware fusion 11.1.0, ubuntu 19.04 fresh install, sway 1.1.rc2. Gnome manages to display the cursor (both with X11 and wayland gnome), sway unfortunately does not

[rstacruz]

Very closely related to https://github.com/swaywm/sway/issues/3617.

One workaround is to add this to your ~/.profile:

export WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS=1

This was suggested here:

• No mouse cursor visible on VirtualBox (or VMware) #3814 (comment)
• https://github.com/swaywm/sway/issues/3617#issuecomment-461608727

[eoli3n]

Same here with Qemu

[NETLIFYHOSTINGAHMD]

i am not in a VM and i dont have a cursor aswell

[ku1ik]

I'm experiencing the same problem when running Wayland+Sway under Parallels Desktop on M1 macbook. This problem doesn't occur under any other guest OS/window manager I virtualize on Parallels. I've tested Xorg+i3 on the same VM and the cursor is visible and works perfectly fine there.

[hnorkowski]

I am using Manjaro Sway with VirtualBox 6.1.38 and disabling the hardware cursor is still the only fix I could find. But the cursor is very laggy. I want to use the VM as daily driver but that that cursor is very annoying. Is there any other fix (plannend)?

[Je55eah]

I am experiencing the same issue, missing mouse pointer, manjaro sway, virtualbox, mx linux host, mid 2012 macbook pro, intel hd graphics 4000

[tim-rex]

I can report the same running Fedora 38 under Parallels on an M2 macbook pro
Setting WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS is a workaround, but performance isn't great. As others have reported, hardware cursors on this platform seem to work just fine with other window managers (Gnome/Plasma) but unclear how much of this is driven by Parallels Tools installation

drm_info attached
drminfo.txt

[bermudi]

I can also report the same issue for a very old intel GPU.
WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS seems to work rather well with no notable lag. And just like others have mentioned mouse cursor works fine in other wayland WM like weston/wayfire/hikari/etc...

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

drm_info https://termbin.com/52m0
log https://termbin.com/dvlh
log with software cursors https://termbin.com/mtq7