In message <20010318183343.E1184@quartz.newn.cam.ac.uk>, Patrick Welche writes:
>On a current i386 system, but with old X of 29 May 2000, for some strange
>reason the pointer appears as a large white rectangle. How is this possible ?!
>vga1 at pci1 dev 1 function 0: S3 Trio3D/2X (rev. 0x02)
>wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
>
>Amazed,
>
>Patrick
>
Try add 

	    Option "sw_cursor"

to the Device section of your X config file.  At least, I've had to do 
that in the past on some machines.

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb