Ubuntu – Easy way to quickly locate the mouse pointer?

accessibilitymouse pointer

I am visually impaired, and find it really difficult to locate the mouse pointer on screen. (I am running Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS) Other OS's have built-in methods to make the mouse pointer more easily visible. In Windows you can turn on "pointer trails" where moving the pointer will leave a trail of pointer images making it easier to visually track/follow the pointer. (I nicknamed them "mouse droppings" 😉 ) And in MacOS Sierra, Apple added a feature whereby if you jiggle the mouse pointer (move it back and forth rapidly) it will temporarily enlarge the mouse pointer, again to make it easier to see on screen. Is there a similar feature (either built-in or provided by a third-party app) for Ubuntu?

Best Answer

It's not an obvious setting, but you can mimic the Windows behavior of showing the mouse when you press the control key.

In the terminal, do

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.mouse locate-pointer true

Now a little animation will indicate the location of the mouse anytime you tap the Control key:

control key animation

(To turn it off, use false instead of true)

(Source)

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