How to change cursor shape, color, and blinkrate of Linux Console?

GitHub Gist: How to change cursor shape, color, and blinkrate of Linux Console

I define the following cursor formatting settings in my .bashrc file (or /etc/bashrc):

##############
# pretty prompt and font colors
##############

# alter the default colors to make them a bit prettier
echo -en "\e]P0000000" #black
echo -en "\e]P1D75F5F" #darkred
echo -en "\e]P287AF5F" #darkgreen
echo -en "\e]P3D7AF87" #brown
echo -en "\e]P48787AF" #darkblue
echo -en "\e]P5BD53A5" #darkmagenta
echo -en "\e]P65FAFAF" #darkcyan
echo -en "\e]P7E5E5E5" #lightgrey
echo -en "\e]P82B2B2B" #darkgrey
echo -en "\e]P9E33636" #red
echo -en "\e]PA98E34D" #green
echo -en "\e]PBFFD75F" #yellow
echo -en "\e]PC7373C9" #blue
echo -en "\e]PDD633B2" #magenta
echo -en "\e]PE44C9C9" #cyan
echo -en "\e]PFFFFFFF" #white
clear #for background artifacting

# set the default text color. this only works in tty (eg $TERM == "linux"), not pts (eg $TERM == "xterm")
setterm -background black -foreground green -store

# http://linuxgazette.net/137/anonymous.html
cursor_style_default=0 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_invisible=1 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_underscore=2 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_lower_third=3 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_lower_half=4 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_two_thirds=5 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_full_block_blinking=6 # hardware cursor (blinking)
cursor_style_full_block=16 # software cursor (non-blinking)

cursor_background_black=0 # same color 0-15 and 128-infinity
cursor_background_blue=16 # same color 16-31
cursor_background_green=32 # same color 32-47
cursor_background_cyan=48 # same color 48-63
cursor_background_red=64 # same color 64-79
cursor_background_magenta=80 # same color 80-95
cursor_background_yellow=96 # same color 96-111
cursor_background_white=112 # same color 112-127

cursor_foreground_default=0 # same color as the other terminal text
cursor_foreground_cyan=1
cursor_foreground_black=2
cursor_foreground_grey=3
cursor_foreground_lightyellow=4
cursor_foreground_white=5
cursor_foreground_lightred=6
cursor_foreground_magenta=7
cursor_foreground_green=8
cursor_foreground_darkgreen=9
cursor_foreground_darkblue=10
cursor_foreground_purple=11
cursor_foreground_yellow=12
cursor_foreground_white=13
cursor_foreground_red=14
cursor_foreground_pink=15

cursor_styles="\e[?${cursor_style_full_block};${cursor_foreground_black};${cursor_background_green};c" # only seems to work in tty

# http://www.bashguru.com/2010/01/shell-colors-colorizing-shell-scripts.html
prompt_foreground_black=30
prompt_foreground_red=31
prompt_foreground_green=32
prompt_foreground_yellow=33
prompt_foreground_blue=34
prompt_foreground_magenta=35
prompt_foreground_cyan=36
prompt_foreground_white=37

prompt_background_black=40
prompt_background_red=41
prompt_background_green=42
prompt_background_yellow=43
prompt_background_blue=44
prompt_background_magenta=45
prompt_background_cyan=46
prompt_background_white=47

prompt_chars_normal=0
prompt_chars_bold=1
prompt_chars_underlined=4 # doesn't seem to work in tty
prompt_chars_blinking=5 # doesn't seem to work in tty
prompt_chars_reverse=7

prompt_reset=0

#start_prompt_coloring="\e[${prompt_chars_bold};${prompt_foreground_black};${prompt_background_green}m"
start_prompt_styles="\e[${prompt_chars_bold}m" # just use default background and foreground colors
end_prompt_styles="\e[${prompt_reset}m"

PS1="${start_prompt_styles}[\u@\h \W] \$${end_prompt_styles}${cursor_styles} "

##############
# end pretty prompt and font colors
##############

Most apps use the cnorm capability to set the cursor back to the "normal" state. By default this is the blinking underline. But you can override this in your terminfo. This should fix most applications (vim, tmux, etc.). Issue these commands:

infocmp -A /usr/share/terminfo linux > linux
patch -lp1 <<EOF
--- a/linux
+++ b/linux
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ linux|linux console,
    colors#8, it#8, ncv#18, pairs#64,
    acsc=+\020\,\021-\030.^Y0\333\`\004a\261f\370g\361h\260i\316j\331k\277l\332m\300n\305o~p\304q\304r\304s_t\303u\264v\301w\302x\263y\363z\362{\343|\330}\234~\376,
    bel=^G, blink=\E[5m, bold=\E[1m, civis=\E[?25l\E[?1c,
-   clear=\E[H\E[J, cnorm=\E[?25h\E[?0c, cr=^M,
+   clear=\E[H\E[J, cnorm=\E[?25h\E[?48;0;32c, cr=^M,
    csr=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dr, cub=\E[%p1%dD, cub1=^H,
    cud=\E[%p1%dB, cud1=^J, cuf=\E[%p1%dC, cuf1=\E[C,
    cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH, cuu=\E[%p1%dA, cuu1=\E[A,
EOF
tic linux
rm linux

Modify the above patch for your needs. This should create ~/.terminfo/l/linux which should be picked up by most of the terminal apps.

If you use bash, you can use PROMPT_COMMAND which will execute a command after each command. Put the following in your .bashrc

PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -e "\e[?16;0;200c"'