Bug 497549

Summary:	Cursors from GNOME are not selectable in KDE
Product:	[I don't know] kde	Reporter:	David <david.cortes.rivera>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs <unassigned-bugs-null>
Status:	CLOSED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	normal	CC:	harun.sa4, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description David 2024-12-16 10:43:07 UTC

SUMMARY
Cursor themes from gnome packages, such as adwaita, are no longer selectable to use in KDE.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Install the latest KDE software.
2. Install libraries with themes from gnome, such as adwaita.
3. Go to the cursor settings in the plasma system settings.

OBSERVED RESULT
Doesn't show the adwaita cursor theme.

EXPECTED RESULT
Should offer the adwaita cursor theme. I get that there was some recent reassessment of how to interpret metadata from gnome about icons and themes, but cursors should not be affected by their misclassifications, since they only have a few states and sizes.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
(available in the Info Center app, or by running `kinfo` in a terminal window)
Linux/KDE Plasma: 
KDE Plasma Version: 
KDE Frameworks Version: 
Qt Version: 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2024-12-16 17:22:55 UTC

This is intentional; Adwaita (all of its parts) is no longer designed to be a proper cross-desktop theme and is only developed to work for GNOME. As such, trying to use it in Plasma causes multiple issues that the Adwaita developers don't consider to actually be issues. For this reason, we decided to hide it in System Settings.

Comment 2 Harun Sameer 2025-09-22 19:36:19 UTC

Honestly that previous comment kinda feels a little ingenious as these cursors are compatible with other desktop environments like i3. To be able to see the cursor option from kde, You have to go to /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/ or where Adwaita theme is installed and open index.theme. 

You can just run "sudo nano /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/index.theme"
In there change "hidden=True" to "hidden=False".
Save using Ctrl+S and exit using Ctrl+X
The change should be immediate.

In my opinion, just because a theme does not agree with the rest of the community, it does not mean that one should prevent a person from at least trying to use it. Heck what does cursors have to do with the disagreement with the overall Adwaita theme? I rather prefer the Adwaita cursors then the original breeze ones even though I like breeze as an overall theme.