Arch Linux

archie83

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 6

Problem with copying and pasting text

I switched from vim to neovim in order to be able to copy and paste text. So, if my cursor is in a specific line, i am now able to copy and paste text. The strange thing is, that pasting to the Guake terminal does not work. So, suppose i have a file with the following content:

a line in a file

If i copy the first line with neovim, i can paste it to any other program (e.g. chrome) using ctrl+v, shift+insert. If i try to paste it to guake using shift+insert, it won't paste the correct words into it. In fact, it pastes the words which where copied using the mouse.
In summary, it seems like there are two storage places for the clipboard.

system72

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 572

Website

Re: Problem with copying and pasting text

the clipboard from selecting text with your mouse is called the primary selection, see if there is an option to disable it in the docs of that program

https://github.com/Guake/guake/pull/1903

this looks relevant ^^

and this for init.lua:

vim.o.clipboard = "unnamedplus"

Last edited by system72 (2025-11-25 18:40:12)

---

7712 0a9f 0e6b F099 091d  438b 8b38 5527 5dfd D001

jonno2002

Member

Registered: 2016-11-21

Posts: 844

Re: Problem with copying and pasting text

put this in your 'init.vim'

set clipboard+=unnamedplus

also install 'xclip' which also seems to help.

EDIT: if your using wayland i have no idea if xclip is relevant as i dont use wayland
EDIT2: thanks system-72 for correct wayland clipboard

Last edited by jonno2002 (2025-11-25 18:42:25)

system72

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 572

Website

Re: Problem with copying and pasting text

also install 'xclip' which also seems to help.

wl-clipboard for wayland

---

7712 0a9f 0e6b F099 091d  438b 8b38 5527 5dfd D001

system72

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 572

Website

Re: Problem with copying and pasting text

If i copy the first line with neovim, i can paste it to any other program (e.g. chrome) using ctrl+v, shift+insert. If i try to paste it to guake using shift+insert, it won't paste the correct words into it. In fact, it pastes the words which where copied using the mouse.
In summary, it seems like there are two storage places for the clipboard.

this seems unrelated to the editor though, more or so guake

---

7712 0a9f 0e6b F099 091d  438b 8b38 5527 5dfd D001

jonno2002

Member

Registered: 2016-11-21

Posts: 844

Re: Problem with copying and pasting text

sorry should have done my research first, just installed guake and found that 'ctrl+shift+v' does what you want and 'shift+insert' appears to paste only from the mouse selection as you stated

archie83

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 6

Re: Problem with copying and pasting text

put this in your 'init.vim'

set clipboard+=unnamedplus

also install 'xclip' which also seems to help.

EDIT: if your using wayland i have no idea if xclip is relevant as i dont use wayland
EDIT2: thanks system-72 for correct wayland clipboard

I already did that.