The mouse pointer in my Ubuntu VM has turned into a little hand with a document, and clicks are ignored. How do I get out of this mode?

Question

The mouse pointer in my Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS VM (running in VMware Fusion) has changed into a little hand holding a document. It doesn't show up in screen-shots.

All mouse clicks (left or right) are ignored. But I can still type in the one Terminal window I have open. (And commands work fine.)

I wonder if I'm in some kind of drag-and-drop mode.

How do I get out of this?

Update: Rebooting (from the command-line) worked. Ubuntu came up with the regular mouse-pointer.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

3

The only solution I've found is to reboot.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

Community

1

answered Jan 12 '10 at 19:18

Daryl Spitzer

9,065

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 08:48

2

I solved it (without having to reboot) by performing these steps. Which was basically dragging some text from the host to the guest machine.

I think I had the same problem as what you have - can't be sure though. Try it anyway.

answered Oct 18 '11 at 08:48

JW.

199

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 25 '10 at 16:03

1

Switching to a VT via CtrlAltF2 or the like, logging in, and then killing the app via kill will release the lock on the pointer.

answered Apr 25 '10 at 16:03

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

114,604

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 26 '15 at 21:59

1

If you do Ctrl + Alt + F1 followed by Ctrl + Alt + F7, this may fix the problem.

answered Aug 26 '15 at 21:59

Caleb Eby

111

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 31 '15 at 10:07

0

Just logging out (Ctrl+Alt+Del) solved the issue for me

answered May 31 '15 at 10:07

Sudheesh.M.S

101

The mouse pointer in my Ubuntu VM has turned into a little hand with a document, and clicks are ignored. How do I get out of this mode?

5 Answers5

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