Q:

Mouse cursor invisible after 15.04 update

My mouse pointer became invisible after some updates after I upgraded to 15.04 from 14.10. 
In all standard settings the mouse pointer is activated (system settings, dconf...)
I also tried different cursor icons with no success.
The pointer is sometimes visible after I shut down and reboot the system. But only sometimes and I couldn't figure out a patterns why it sometimes shows up.
I found the following solution which did not work
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.cursor active false

Any help appreciated! thanks!

A:

This bug is still around for a Xubuntu 16.04 system using lightdm. A fix for Xubuntu, and possibly other DE's, as described on the Xubuntu 16.04 Release Post is to bring the cursor back with Ctrl+Alt+F1 followed by Ctrl+Alt+F7 .
This worked for me, where none of the other solutions had without reloading everything and closing every page.

A:

I have the same problem after upgrading to 15.04 from 14.10. Sometimes the mouse pointer will appear, this happens approx 1 in 5 computer switch on times. I found a way to get round this as suggested above.
(note: this will hard-kill any running processes).
sudo service lightdm restart
This does have to be issued after every start up . Does anybody know of a more long-term fix?
I have now found a long-term fix. Switch to gdm instead.
sudo apt-get install gdm
after trying several reboots this fix seems to work every time.
I don't know if lightdm gives any advantages over gdm, but to me seeing the cursor is a big advantage of GDM over lightdm.

A:

A dirty hack I do (which surprisingly works for me) is to open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and then type ls then the mouse shows in 1-2 seconds.
That said, the normal way that works is to restart the mouse driver. This solution also works when the mouse pointer is misbehaving (like flickering randomly out of control). You restart the mouse driver like:
sudo modprobe -r psmouse  # disable the driver
sudo modprobe psmouse # enable the mouse driver

