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.

Solution 1

The only solution I've found is to reboot.

Solution 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.

Solution 3

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

Solution 4

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.

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Comments

[RJFalconer]

Hey Daryl. If that command-line reboot has fixed the problem, you may want to add your fix as an answer to your own question, then accept it.

[Jake Toronto]

After doing this, you can use Ctrl+Alt+F7 to get back to the GUI

[bertieb]

Why? Can you elaborate on what this does? (it should switch to a tty and back to X, but why does that help?)

[Caleb Eby]

I think it's because it stops drawing the pointer, and when you return to GUI, it must redraw it

[boardrider]

Clicking on the URL gives: Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (26)