HOW-TO: Manually Install Cursor Themes In #!Crunchbang Linux 9.04

Not all distributions use a graphical cursor theme manager and at times it will be necessary to install cursor themes to x-cursor-theme alternatives. I ran into this issue and was disappointed at the lack of documentation. Basically this is how it's done:

1. Extract theme archive and copy it into /usr/share/icons.
2. Make sure the theme folder contains both an index.theme and a                          cursor.theme. If it doesn't have both you will have to create them.

    index.theme:

    [Icon Theme]

  Name=name-of-theme

    cursor.theme

    [Icon Theme]

  Inherits=name-of-theme

3. Now you have to add it to your alternatives for x11 cursors:

    sudo update-alternatives --install /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/themefolder/cursor.theme 50

4. Now you can choose your theme
    sudo update-alternatives --config x-curosr-theme

If you wind up with the plain black core cursor you need to restore the link between /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme and the default setting in /usr/share/icons/default by pasting this command:

ln -s /etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme 

If you want to remove a theme use this command:

sudo update-alternatives --remove  x-cursor-theme /usr/share/icons/theme-folder/cursor.theme