KDE clipboard (klipper) incompatible with lesstif

Hey Timothy,

Is this issue still rearing its ugly head? If so, what versions are you running? Thanks!

I'm afraid that I haven't used KDE in quite a while. This bug was one of the contributing reasons. However, since I haven't heard anything from the Lesstif bug report I submitted, it would be safe to assume that nothing's been done to fix it.

It is still an issue, just asked on IRC and somebody acknowledged it. Thanks!

Still an issue in Intrepid?

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

I think I have found a good way to reproduce the problem: ICAClient.

It does not seem to directly use lesstif/motif, however:

$ ldd /usr/lib/ICAClient/wfica
        linux-gate.so.1 => (0xb7f9d000)
        libXaw.so.7 => /usr/lib/libXaw.so.7 (0xb7f05000)
        libXt.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXt.so.6 (0xb7eb4000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 (0xb7dc5000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl.so.2 (0xb7dc0000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0xb7c62000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXext.so.6 (0xb7c53000)
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/lib/libSM.so.6 (0xb7c4a000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/lib/libICE.so.6 (0xb7c32000)
        libXmu.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0xb7c1c000)
        libXpm.so.4 => /usr/lib/libXpm.so.4 (0xb7c0b000)
        libxcb-xlib.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0 (0xb7c08000)
        libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1 (0xb7bef000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7f83000)
        libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXau.so.6 (0xb7bec000)
        libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6 (0xb7be7000)

Anyway: use any ICAClient to connect to a windows server machine. Then copy something from, say, konsole (using right-click then "copy" so that is goes to the clipboard, not only the selection buffer) and try to paste in a Windows remote application - try notepad for simplicity. It won't paste.

However, if I go to console and use "xclip", it will work:

$ xclip
<My selection goes here>
<Ctrl-D>
$

Then I paste it ok to notepad or whatever.

Here are my klipper options:

[ ] Popup menu at mouse-cursor position
[V] Save clipboard contents on exit
[V] Remove whitespace when executing actions
[ ] Replay actions on an item selected from history
[V] Prevent empty clipboard
[V] Ignore selection %

Clipboard/Selection Behavior
(*) Synchronize contents of the clipboard and the selection %
( ) Separate clipboard and selection

Timeout for action popups:
8 sec

Clipboard history size:
24 entries

I tried to change the options marked with % to see if it would work to no avail.

kdebase:
ii kdebase-bin 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 core binaries for the KDE 4 base module
ii kdebase-data 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 shared data files for the KDE 4 base module
ii kdebase-runtime 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 runtime components from the official KDE 4 release
ii kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 core binaries for the KDE 4 base runtime module
ii kdebase-runtime-data 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 shared data files for the KDE 4 base runtime module
ii kdebase-runtime-data-common 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 shared data files for the KDE 4 base runtime module
ii kdebase-workspace-bin 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 core binaries for the KDE 4 base workspace module
ii kdebase-workspace-data 4:4.1.3-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 shared ...

After upgrading to 9.04 beta i ran into the same problem.
Nedit no longer allows copy, cut & paste

The nedit version is 5.5 which was installed by jaunty.

Can we raise the priority on this? Nedit is a popular editor. In fact, it's one of the few I can stand to use. Also, can we find out who maintains Lesstif?

I think this is one of those cases where a major distro, like Ubuntu, is going to have to throw its weight around to get anything done on this. The maintainer of Klipper has this attitude that he's doing everything right and that any problems are therefore not his fault, even though Klipper seems to be implicated in every clipboard problem I've ever heard about. Then there's Lesstif whose maintainers (if there are any) have sat silently on this issue for YEARS. In order to get this resolved, we're going to have to get these two groups to communicate with each other. So far, they're unwilling, but pressure from a major distro may help soften them up a bit.

This problem is more political than it is technical. In the world of open source, what can be more stupid?

I have to agree with Timothy. This is one of the "polish" issues that affect linux's reputation as being a "unfriendly" OS. Let's raise the priority, shall we?

Here's my January 2007 post to the Lesstif bug database on this issue:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1637320&group_id=8596&atid=108596

There are currently only 5 comments on this. How about we get some additional posts there to let them know that this is still a problem and that we would appreciate it if they would get involved in the solution.

I just installed Ubuntu 9.04 beta with LDE 4.2 and nedit 5.5 on one of my laptops and ran into the nedit/klipper issue.

On my "old" 7.10 workstation with KDE 3.5, nedit 5.5 and activated "prevent empty clipboard" option i don't have any problems with cut&paste in nedit.

So i have to raise the question why it worked with KDE 3.5 like a charme and now with KDE 4.2 there's trouble? On the 7.10 box is just "libmotif3" installed, the 9.04 box has "libmotif3" and "lesstif2".

I would like to report that when upgrading from Kubuntu 8.10 to Kubuntu 9.04 beta I also found that the copy and paste failed to work in nedit. This bugs makes the editor unusable.

I've been using nedit for decade as my main dev editor so it was initially pretty disruptive to my productivity. It forced me to start learning Kate, which in the end perhaps has been a blessing, as it's now become a very capable editor that integrates well with the rest of KDE and is a pretty good replacement.

However, given that it looks like this nedit/lesstiff bug is likely to effect more Motif based apps than just nedit it may well be a show stopper for some and may prevent use of Kubuntu 9.04.

Using KDE and Nedit since several years, I just upgraded to KDE 4.2: I can confirm this very annoying bug.
Reading all the messages here and on other bug tracking systems, I feel sad there's no good spirit to solve the problem. At least, such a problem is not very frequent, usually open source developpers are far better to solve issues ;-)

Is this a KDE issue?

I'm seeing it in Ubuntu 9.04 under Gnome as well. Issue never presented itself for me in 8.04 (again Ubuntu/Gnome).

@tliebeck, do you run a 64 bit computer? Some issues regarding 64 bit copying are solved in the latest version of lesstif2.

@all previous posters: On previous versions of Ubuntu nedit was compiled against libmotif instead of lesstif. After an upgrade in Debian, Ubuntu just synced again, dropping the changes necessary for building with libmotif.

For all that want to know: I am looking into this bug, as I also have upstream commit rights for lesstif as well as in the Debian lesstif package, but I am unfamiliar with both C++ programming as well as with the lesstif codebase. So work in slow progress, but if somebody could figure this out it would be so much better.

The problems in nedit do not appear when I quit klipper (temporarily).

I will also mark this bug as relevant for lesstif, so that I can follow it from there.

Just an FYI, this is not just limited to Nedit. This is an application-wide issue. The Copy/Paste feature intermediately works and crashes. I'm running KDE 4.2 and it happens so much it's extremely frustrating. I not only use Nedit but also Zend Studio. The Copy/Paste issue also happens in Konsole.

The reason is because the Klipper is not controlling the items "copied". This is indeed only for the 4.x build as it does not happen in the 3.5 build.

I really hope this is resolved... I don't want to use Gnome, but as a developer it's really making my life hell...

Fixed with NEdit cvs, so upstream KDE doesn't consider it a KDE bug.

@Jonathan Thomas: could you make a reference to where upstream KDE mentions this? As far as I know the problem is NOT limited to Nedit AND not solved in cvs. The latest version of Nedit in Ubuntu is up-to-date with cvs and the problem still exists.

Sorry, should have read upstream bug tracker. That is where it is mentioned.