This is a pre-existing problem all the way back to 0.91. Reinstalled Inkscape again today to check it, and it is still a problem.

Running 0.92..1 r15371 on Windows 7.

Displaying the Windows desktop to my Linux desktop using a tool called rdesktop. I have no way to determine if the rdesktop is a part/cause of this problem, but I don't have a Windows installed on a real computer anymore (and cannot anyhow), so altering how rdesktop works is not a solution.

Problem: When I try to draw any object on the screen, the Windows mouse cursor changes to a tiny white arrow cursor. Since the default background is (and should be) white, the cursor completely disappears. I can sort of detect where it is by first drawing some object, such as a big rectangle, with a non-white background, but that is very cumbersome.

Note that when I hover the mouse over other GUI elements in the window (not the drawing canvas), I get the normal Windows cursor which is an arrow with white on the inside and black on the edges, such that no matter over what part of the screen I move the mouse cursor to, it is always visible.

So is there some way to force the cursor in Inkscape to be something with an non-white outline or just red or black or something visible? Or not cause it to change at all but force it to be always the same type of cursor (not really what I want, though; what I want is the cursor it changes to to just be visible).

Thanks,
-bg

Uhm... Why don't you install Inkscape on the Linux machine directly? That might be faster, and is usually more stable...

Can you access the Windows computer directly, to see if the issue is already there without the remote desktop tool?

The Inkscape pointer should be different for each tool. (I can't make you a screenshot, because mine doesn't capture the mouse or pointer.) Do you see the all-white arrow pointer for every tool?

If we can't solve the pointer issue, you could change the canvas background to any color you want. Document Properties > Page Tab > Background. Click on the bar which is half white/half checkerboard. A small color dialog will come up, where you can change the color and opacity for the background.

Or with 0.92, Inkscape offers the option to use a checkerboard background, to indicate transparency. (The Inkscape background is transparent by default.) I think that option is on the same Document Properties page.

To make it more global, once you decide how you want to configure the background, you could either make it into a custom template, or even a custom default template. (tutorial: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entr ... n-inkscape)

I am guessing that this problem shows up by way of using rdesktop on Linux to display my Windows VM. I do have inkscape on Linux now and am going to shelve this at least for now.

Thanks for the help, everyone!