The Vanishing Pointer
Linux distributions like Ubuntu are highly customizable and often utilized in unique environments like public kiosks, digital signage displays, or dedicated media centers. In these scenarios, a visible mouse cursor sitting idly in the middle of a playing video or an interactive touch-screen interface is visually distracting. To solve this, developers often install specialized background utilities, such as unclutter, which are designed to automatically hide the mouse cursor after a few seconds of inactivity. However, if you are using Ubuntu as a standard desktop workstation and someone previously installed this utility, having your cursor constantly disappear while you are reading a long webpage can be incredibly annoying.
Restoring Constant Visibility
To ensure your mouse pointer always remains visible on the screen and to stop Ubuntu from automatically hiding it, you must identify and remove or disable the utility responsible for the behavior.
Open your terminal application (Ctrl+Alt+T). The most common culprit is the unclutter package. First, check if it is actively running in the background by typing pgrep unclutter and pressing Enter. If it returns a process ID number, the utility is active. To permanently stop this behavior, you should remove the software entirely. Type sudo apt-get remove --purge unclutter and press Enter. Provide your administrator password when prompted and confirm the uninstallation. Once the package is removed from your system, your mouse cursor will never automatically hide itself again, regardless of how long you leave it idle.