http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20362
--- Comment #21 from Henri Kemppainen du@guu.fi 2010-05-25 13:32:35 --- These might or might not be relevant, but I'm linking to a few forum threads here so I won't need to google them again when I want to track and see if there's helpful information. There's at least one more thread (possibly on another forum) I would've liked to find -- on it they mentioned how the unwanted cursor appears after switching VTs (this is a big problem for me; I run games on another X server, and would like to switch to the primary desktop every once in a while without triggering the bug).
On the second page of the first thread, they point out a curious fix: add some delay before the call to hide the mouse cursor. I've noticed that the mode-switching delay (when a game switches resolution or I switch VT) goes hand-in-hand with this bug, and that eliminating some mode switches can reduce the frequency of triggering this bug.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=925046 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=980592 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1058375 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=916046 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1279001 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1199354 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1096036 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=988573 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=936670 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789416
Sadly there's no common denominator in the information gathered. For some, disabling compiz seems to help. For some, this problem seems to occur with intel drivers only. For some, it's a gnome issue, and for some it's something else. Sigh.