protonscr

Steam not respecting existing cursor theme

steamopen Steam clientWindow managerNeed Retest
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#13209 · opened 2026-05-15 by xRebellion · updated 2026-07-07 · 6 comments · github
XxRebellion 2026-05-15 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): 1778281814
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): CachyOS (Arch), DE: Hyprland
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
  • Steam Logs:

steamlogs.tar.gz

  • GPU: Nvidia 3050 Laptop

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

It seems like steam is having trouble applying (?) the cursor theme that I usually use. This issue happened quite recently, although I don't know whether it is due to Steam or due to other updates within my system. Demonstration video attached:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/38ebd133-f3d5-463e-8930-7d786cc0dbd8

Note that XCURSOR_SIZE env var is being respected, but not XCURSOR_THEME. The weird thing is that it partially works.

Additional info: This issue also occurred with discord because of xwayland not properly reading the cursor theme, though now it has a way to run it without xwayland.
But this partial cursor change is not something you usually see

A couple things that I've tried:

  1. symlink ~/.local/share/icons to ~/.icons
  2. adding .Xresources pointing to the intended theme
  3. Copying all cursors from my original theme to default (though I am unsure if you're supposed to do this or not)
  4. Using nwg-look to change the cursor theme (that means it also changed gnome settings, gtk, etc.)

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Launch Steam
  2. Cursor is immediately like so
  3. Move the cursor around the steam window and find that the custom cursor theme is only applied on some parts of the screen
EEoceneMiacid 2026-05-15 · hidden on GitHub github

The only thing Valve respects is their bottom line, piling fluff onto their already crappy client, and keeping you into their info-gathering ecosystem.

XxRebellion 2026-06-12 github

Update on this: It seems like recently this issue no longer exists for me (1781041600), although I don't know exactly what fixed it. This issue can perhaps be closed.

FFlat 2026-06-12 github

Still an issue for me.

Image
JJinni-SD 2026-06-20 github

For me, it was an xWayland issue... if that's your setup, make sure your cursor theme is installed system wide (/usr/share/icons), then ALSO make sure you have the cursor theme and size written to ~/.Xresourses and ~/.config/environment.d/90-xcursor.conf. That fixed it for me.

FFlat 2026-06-26 github

For me, it was an xWayland issue... if that's your setup, make sure your cursor theme is installed system wide (/usr/share/icons), then ALSO make sure you have the cursor theme and size written to ~/.Xresourses and ~/.config/environment.d/90-xcursor.conf. That fixed it for me.

Looks like this does fix it for me as well. Not sure if it was the .config/environment.d/90-xcursor.conf or copying it to /usr/share/icons

Would be nice if steam did load from the user .icons folder as well though.

Just kidding. Issue is back without changes to the above.

Ssporgmilk 2026-07-07 github

For me copying the cursor theme to ~/.local/share/icons/default fixed the issue.

Nothing extracted yet.