My cursor is a white, blank square instead of a pointer.

Can you give the output of:

sudo lshw -C display

(bt its some garbage intel thing)

roger@LeSueur:~$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for roger:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for roger:
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: K8M890CE/K8N890CE [Chrome 9]
       vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 11
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm agp agp-3.0 bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 mingnt=2
       resources: memory:d0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable) memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:fbcf0000-fbcfffff(prefetchable)
roger@LeSueur:~$

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/117508
http://ubuntu-virginia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1522453

You arent using the chrome driver so your display is garbled.

Nothing is garbled and I can use any resolution I want - right now I'm using 1280X800 (?) and have changed back and forth with ease. The only issue I have is the cursor being a white square. I'm using a LogiTech mouse and tried a Microsoft mouse with the same results. I am running Ubuntu 10.04. Any other suggestions? Here is the command again.

oger@LeSueur:~$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for roger:
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: K8M890CE/K8N890CE [Chrome 9]
       vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 11
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm agp agp-3.0 bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 mingnt=2
       resources: memory:d0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable) memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:fbcf0000-fbcfffff(prefetchable)
roger@LeSueur:~$

My monitor is a Samsung LCD.

Any more suggestions? And please remember that I'm very, very new at this so don't assume I know anything.

Thanks

The issue isn't the mouse hardware, its the display driver. You need to get the Chrome driver used by using an xorg.conf file to define the display.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenChrome
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/display-not-good-in-lenny-amd64-751664/

You will be wrestling xorg.conf until you get a nice resolution

I'm running Ubuntu 10.4 LTS, Ultimate edition 2.6, i use GNOME, after installing nVIDIA drivers I'm not able to change the cursor. i choose DMZ(white) as my cursor, but this cursor disappears when moved on the title bar, panel and splash screen.
help me.

karthik@desktop:~$ sudo lshw -C display
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a]
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: d
       bus info: pci@0000:00:0d.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:21 memory:de000000-deffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff(prefetchable) memory:dd000000-ddffffff memory:dffc0000-dffdffff(prefetchable)

Ultimate isn't supported here. Ultimate is BASED on Ubuntu but is NOT ubuntu.

I suggest you either post on an Ultimate Ubuntu forum, or install Ubuntu from Canonical. If you expect support on the official forum you must be using an official release from Canonical.