Primary selection stopped working

niedxwiedx · 2024-09-19 17:40:31

Seems that primary selection stopped working in the span of last few days. Earlier i was able to select text in one app and paste it into another via middle mouse button. Now this is not the case.
Tried sselp to display selection, nothing gets printed. X11 issue?
The strangest thing is it all happened without even updating the system. I noticed this on both my home & work stations. Does anyone else experience it as well?

I'm running X11 and openbox.

seth · 2024-09-19 20:55:36

sselp doesn't monitor the selection but prints the current one, it might have been cleared.
The most likely explanations are some scripts involving xsel/xclip etc or some actual clipboard manager (like eg. clipman)

Get https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/clipnotify/ and run "clipnotify -s primary", then select some text, clipnotify should™ terminate in response.

niedxwiedx · 2024-09-20 15:29:04

You are right, clipnotify terminated immediately.
I forgot to mention - i do not recall installing any selection related tools, clipboard managers or adding scripts. Also haven't been experimenting with wayland. My home env is now up to date, and my work env is from May this year. And i'm sure primary selection was working in the meantime.

Trilby · 2024-09-20 15:33:10

Does it matter what the source / destination programs are? Specifically, have you tested in copying from and to two different terminals with no other client windows open? Are the results of this different between a terminal and a browser?

Last edited by Trilby (2024-09-20 16:07:11)

niedxwiedx · 2024-09-20 16:59:40

I removed everything from openbox autostart and xinitrc and tested copying between same apps and different apps (both directions, also from the implementation point of view like gtk2, gtk3, qt5, vanilla). Nothing works. I tried urxvt, leafpad, cherrytree, chromium, vlc.

niedxwiedx · 2024-09-20 17:19:39

but pasting via shift+insert works...

niedxwiedx · 2024-09-20 17:30:47

niedxwiedx wrote:

but pasting via shift+insert works...

scratch that

niedxwiedx · 2024-09-20 17:43:10

this is strange and confused me as i noticed that i was able to paste selection via shift+insert, then it stopped working, and now it is working again. I do not know what has changed. Searching for patterns...

seth · 2024-09-20 19:04:34

shift+ins will typically™ paste the clipboard.

echo clipboard | xsel -ib
echo primary | xsel -ip
echo secondary | xsel -is

But there's obviously something fucking around w/ your selection buffer.

ps fax

Arch Linux

#1 2024-09-19 17:40:31

Primary selection stopped working

#2 2024-09-19 20:55:36

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#3 2024-09-20 15:29:04

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#4 2024-09-20 15:33:10

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#5 2024-09-20 16:59:40

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#6 2024-09-20 17:19:39

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#7 2024-09-20 17:30:47

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#8 2024-09-20 17:43:10

Re: Primary selection stopped working

#9 2024-09-20 19:04:34

Re: Primary selection stopped working

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