CursorPop

Two small visual effects for the mouse cursor on Linux, inspired by macOS:

• On click, the cursor briefly shrinks and comes back with a little bounce.
• On shaking the mouse quickly side to side, the cursor grows for a moment so you can find it on screen.

Works on any X11 desktop: Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE, XFCE, MATE and others.

v0.3.0 — Tested on Linux Mint Debian Edition (Cinnamon).

The settings window follows your system language (English and Spanish are included; anything else falls back to English).

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Installation

Option 1 — Debian package (easiest)

Download the .deb file from the releases page and install it with a double click, or from the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i cursorpop_0.3.0_amd64.deb

If a dependency is missing, run afterwards:

sudo apt install -f

Option 2 — Build from source

1. Install the dependencies:

# Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint / LMDE
sudo apt install build-essential gettext libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev libxext-dev \
                 python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-xapp-1.0

2. Build and install:

make
sudo make install

3. (Optional) Build a .deb package yourself:

make deb
sudo dpkg -i cursorpop_0.3.0_amd64.deb

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Getting started

After installing, open CursorPop Settings from your desktop menu (under Preferences or Accessories).

A window opens where you can:

• Turn each effect on or off independently.
• Adjust how much the cursor shrinks on click and how much it grows on shake.
• Enable autostart with the graphical session — just tick "Start with the graphical session" and you're done.

When you click Apply, the changes take effect immediately. When you close the window, cursorpop keeps running in the system tray (the mouse icon in the corner of the panel).

System tray

From the tray icon you can:

• Turn cursorpop on or off with a single click.
• Open the settings window.
• Quit the application entirely.

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Uninstall

If you installed the .deb package

sudo apt remove cursorpop

If you installed with make install

sudo make uninstall

Optional — remove your personal data

The steps above remove the program but leave your per-user files (settings and the autostart entry) untouched. To remove those too:

rm -rf ~/.config/cursorpop ~/.config/autostart/cursorpop.desktop

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FAQ

Does it work on Wayland? No. Wayland does not allow this kind of global cursor effect. It only works in X11 sessions.

The cursor looks blurry when it grows. With very large scale factors (above 2×) it can look a bit blurry, since the cursor image is scaled in software. At the default value (2×) it looks fine.

Does it need a special compositor? It needs an active compositor for the effect's transparency. Most modern desktops have one by default (Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE and XFCE enable it out of the box).

The GUI does not appear in the menu after installing. Try logging out and back in, or run in the terminal:

update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications

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Advanced configuration (command line)

For users who prefer not to use the GUI, the daemon accepts options when run:

cursorpop --press-scale 0.75 --grow-scale 2.5 --no-wiggle

It also reads ~/.config/cursorpop/cursorpop.conf at startup. See the full CLI and configuration reference.

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For developers

Document	Contents
docs/architecture.md	How it works internally: X11, overlay, easing, shake detection
docs/cli-reference.md	All CLI options and the config file format
docs/CONTRIBUTING.md	How to build, code structure, style guide and how to contribute
CHANGELOG.md	Release history

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.