gnome-settings-daemon requires idle monitors which are provided by mutter, for the cursor plugin to work correctly. I think you probably want to use unity-settings-daemon here, it has its own idle monitor. This was a fork of gnome-settings-daemon 3.8 and should provide much better support for legacy/gtk2 DE's
** Changed in: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-settings-daemon in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1418232 Title: running gnome-settings-daemon causes my mouse cursor to disappear Status in gnome-settings-daemon package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: I use fluxbox and if I start gnome-settings-daemon (so that my power preferences take effect), them my mouse cursor disappears. As soon as I kill it, it comes back. Extra info: [phild@cyanide ~]$ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 14.10 Release: 14.10 [phild@cyanide ~]$ apt-cache policy gnome-settings-daemon gnome-settings-daemon: Installed: 3.12.2-1ubuntu2 Candidate: 3.12.2-1ubuntu2 Version table: *** 3.12.2-1ubuntu2 0 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10 Package: gnome-settings-daemon 3.12.2-1ubuntu2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-30.40-generic 3.16.7-ckt3 Uname: Linux 3.16.0-30-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8.1 Architecture: amd64 Date: Wed Feb 4 14:15:26 2015 InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-10-03 (1219 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1) SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2015-01-30 (5 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1418232/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp