protonscr

Pasting from the copy buffer occasionally takes two tries before it pastes the correct thing

steamclosed bugreviewed
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#41 · opened 2012-12-20 by z0w0 · updated 2013-11-13 · 73 comments · github
Zz0w0 2012-12-20 github

Say if I had copied google.com and pasted it into my browser to go there (for who knows what reason), and then I copy github.com and paste it into a steam chat with one of my friends, it will occasionally paste google.com instead. Doesn't happen all the time, but it's slowly becoming more present and a real annoyance. I'm 99% sure this is not an issue system-wide, because this doesn't happen with any other apps.

Operating System Version:
    "Arch Linux" (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  3.7.1-1-ARCH
    X Server vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server release:  11301000

Yes I know I'm not on Ubuntu and ArchLinux isn't officially supported, but this is literally the only issue I've ever had with it -- everything else has worked perfectly.

CCheeseness 2012-12-20 github

I was just in the middle of writing an issue for this. I've seen it in Fedora 17 with Gnome Shell, and have heard other users on Ubuntu 12.10 mention it also.

Pressing paste a second time will yield the expected results.

It seems to almost reliably happen for me 100% of the time, and seems to only occur for content copied from outside the Steam client being pasted into the Steam client (I've never had it occur when pasting outside of Steam).

This bug gives the impression that Steam's clipboard sits one copy event behind the system clipboard.

Mmdaffin 2012-12-20 github

Also, I have noticed that on the Community > Discussions tab ctrl+v/c does not work at all.

Bbiltongza 2012-12-20 github

I have this issue sometimes too.

Ppbhj 2012-12-21 github

As for @james147 copy to buffer doesn't work in the ToS and Policy pages when registering. Print failed for me and the old copy-paste back up didn't work either.

VV10lator 2012-12-22 github

Just wanted to reference this, as I think it is somehow connected: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/2/846939615090756197/

Mmemorynoise 2012-12-30 github

I'm experiencing a somewhat different behaviour while answering any discussion: pressing CTRL+V twice doesn't paste any text if not followed by right clicking on the chat area. This problems leds to sporadic crashes, too.

HHirato 2013-01-27 github

I can confirm this too, it's weird and annoying.

The first time Ctrl-V/Shift-Insert is invoked, steam will paste the contents of the copy-buffer properly (not too sure of this fact at the moment).
It will then copy that into some internal buffer, and on a future invocation of Paste, it will paste this into the destination, and then copy what it should've pasted into the textbox into this internal buffer.
Rinse and repeat for successive paste attempts.

At least, this is the behaviour I've observed, and it describes the "paste twice for the right result" phenomenon.

Mmattyy1hp 2013-02-02 github

It happens to me sometimes.
Also, sometime, mouse right button has a same function, like CTRL+V.
Linux Mint 13 LTS x64, Cinnamon.

Vvelociostrich 2013-02-05 github

Happens to me consistently (i.e., 100% of the time) as well.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x32 (though I'm using the XFCE desktop environment in place of that Unity garbage)

If it has not already been mentioned, pasting with the middle-mouse button does not work at all.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-02-10 github

Happening to me too. I said so on the Steam for Linux discussion forum too.
Here are my specs, as reported by Steam:
http://pastebin.com/S8LqYgh2

MMajkl578 2013-02-10 github

Happening also here in recent days, probability: always.
System info + Debian + Gnome Shell 3.6

This should be High priority bug.

Sstevethepocket 2013-02-24 github

If this is meant to be a catch-all for copy/paste bugs, I discovered today that I can't copy or paste using Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V (which works on other apps), but the context menu options to Copy and Paste work fine. Specifically in the in-client browser. This is in Kubuntu 12.04 with KDE 4.8.5, latest client version.

CCheeseness 2013-02-28 github

Would love to see (or hear of) some progress on this one. Is it being looked into?

LLiamDawe 2013-02-28 github

Yes I would like to know as well, it's really annoying me!! I try to copy/paste the Wargame cd key to put in game but it never works.

Aabc-mikey 2013-03-02 github

Yep, just experienced this again recently using the community section in Steam. In the forums [Ctrl]+C and [Ctrl]+V don't work and when using right click menu no "Cut" was available for text in an entry box, and using right click to copy and paste from the page into the text entry box pasted the last thing copied not the current.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-03-13 github

This bug is still existing.. Any news? :/ The amount of times I pasted something completely irrelevant to a friend, or pasted the same thing twice, is uncountable now.

LLiamDawe 2013-03-15 github

Yes I would like to see an update as well? Pretty annoying issue to be left for over a month.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-04-13 github

Still curious about any progress...

?ghost 2013-04-29 github

I'm having the exact same issue on Linux Mint 14 x64 very frequently.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-04-29 github

It seems that the common factor here is that it's happening to people who are not using Unity AND Ubuntu 12.04, am I right?

Another issue I have as a consequence of not using Unity is that my chat windows don't flash when they are supposed to. I've been told the developers are not planning on solving that issue. But I see the copy/paste one as pretty trivial to fix, and at the same time essential for a smooth user experience. Other programs manage copying and pasting fine, no matter what desktop environment you use.

edit: bold 'not' because it's easily missed when speedreading.

LLiamDawe 2013-04-29 github

No it happens on Cinnamon as well. If you read others comments it happens on gnome shell too.

VV10lator 2013-04-29 github

@liamdawe it happens on xfwm4, too, as well as on compiz and other DEs... so @BurritoBazooka isn't wrong when he says "it's happening to people who are not using Unity"

LLiamDawe 2013-04-29 github

Oh bugger I read it as "on Unity" my bad.

?ghost 2013-05-04 github

I'm getting this on Ubuntu 12.10 64bit and 13.04 64bit in unity.

BBKPepe 2013-05-20 github

Same problem on Ubuntu 13.04 64bit

BBurritoBazooka 2013-05-25 github

I just put up a support ticket politely reminding them of this bug, just in case they got distracted from these old and seemingly trivial bugs ;)

Rribeirobreno 2013-05-29 github

I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 32bit, pasting several game keys in sequence (humble bundle :) ) you can see this happening.

Steps:

  1. Library
  2. Add a Game
  3. Activate a Product on Steam
  4. Copy a key from other software (Firefox)
  5. Paste on Steam and follow the instructions
  6. Repeat
MMastergatto 2013-06-01 github

Happens to me too, Debian Jessie/Sid 64 bit with GNOME 3.8. What's going on?

BBurritoBazooka 2013-06-02 github

I sent that message a week ago, and Valve haven't replied.

If they are not working on this, they must be off drinking Bavarian beer with the Phoronix crew.
I hope. ;)

KKiwii 2013-06-10 github

I can confirm this problem both on my previous setup (Unity on Ubuntu 13.04) and on my current setup (KWin/KDE 4.10.4 on Arch Linux) with the latest beta version of the Steam client. It happens very often and I would categorize this as a major inconvenience.
Here is my system information.

Bboombatower 2013-06-11 github

Confirm on suse 12.3 kde 4.10. Quite annoying.

Mmmstick 2013-06-20 github

This has always annoyed me every single time. I got used to it a while ago. I know to hit Ctrl+V-Ctrl+Z-Ctrl+V every time I want to post something.

BBenguin 2013-06-20 github

Happens to me too, since the start of the open linux beta (was not in the closed beta,) very reliably. It's really annoying when I'm in a link-sharing mood and I keep linking cat gifs to a buddy, but I end up posting the same one twice because it pastes the link I pasted last time, rather than the one I just copied. As above, pasting a second time will produce the correct text.

Edit: just thought of something, and tried copying some text from the steam chat window, and then pasting it in the same window, and it works as intended. So this bug only effects text copied from outside steam. Copying text from the steam window doesn't replace what's in the buffer, though.

Doing the following actions in order:

  1. restart steam
  2. copy 'test 1' from firefox
  3. paste it into the steam chat window
  4. copy 'test 2' from firefox
  5. paste it into the steam chat window
  6. paste again
  7. copy 'test 3' from the steam chat window
  8. paste it into the chatbox
  9. copy 'test 4' from firefox
  10. paste it into the chatbox
  11. paste again

will produce (in this order):
test 1
test 1
test 2
test 3
test 2
test 4

Archlinux 64bit, xfce 4.10.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-06-21 github

Valve hasn't gotten back to me, and it's been nearly 3 weeks. I only sent a message once.

Anyone else feel like bugging them?

The UI being closed source is pretty annoying. There would have been a workaround by now in an open source system.

MMajkl578 2013-06-21 github

@BurritoBazooka: Yup. I'm really disappointed by seeing the current state of Steam for Linux - buggy, glitchy, w/o (really) active development and closed-source client... I was expecting more, much more from them. But this is for another discussion, unrelated to this issue.

Mmmstick 2013-06-21 github

@Majkl578 This kind of program would never work as open source, so it should be closed-source.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-06-21 github

I don't see harm in making purely the UI (user interface) open source.

The actual client that does the work (authenticating licenses; downloading, [un]installing, and starting games; collecting survey data; updating drivers) can remain closed source and have a command line, dbus, or API interface. Various UI frontends can be created for different usage cases (phone, 10-foot, desktop, tablet) edit: with the same Steam closed-source executable core. /edit

The UI is where most of the bugs present themselves to the user, in my opinion, and where bugs are the most detrimental to user experience.

I'm not demanding anything in this direction from Valve, but that is how I'd do it.

KKiwii 2013-06-21 github

@BurritoBazooka I'm pretty sure that is how Desura is doing it. I would kill for an open source steam client. People could rewrite it in Qt and it would look so much more native in my desktop environment.

Rribeirobreno 2013-06-21 github

@Kiwii https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Qt ;)

They also use Chromium and i think this is the main reason why we don't have a steam with native looks. By the way, i would love that. Is there a feature request for this anywhere?


Reference: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Open_Source

FFutureSuture 2013-07-14 github

This issue is beyond annoying. Kindly get to fixing it soon. Thank you.

LLiamDawe 2013-07-14 github

:+1: not sure why this after 7 months still isn't fixed? Is there some major issue holding it up?

BBurritoBazooka 2013-07-14 github

I think I'll prod Valve's support service some more. I implore others (edit: Maybe just one or two) to do so too ( politely ).

edit: Oh, after I sent my message to them, I saw that they responded to my first one. They apologised for the delay and said that no notification would be sent as a result of any action taken. But it's been one-and-a-half more months. So meh.

VV10lator 2013-07-14 github

@BurritoBazooka That won't make anything faster. You're just stealing them resources they could spend to other things (like fixing this)

@liamdawe Maybe they don't know the root of the issue yet, software can be tricky. Especially when you're not able to re-create the issue. And for a company as big as Valve it's better to say nothing and research than to say "we do our best, but we have no idea what's the problem". Maybe they even use 3rd party code for the clipboard handling and don't have the rights to change them (so another company is slow here).

BBurritoBazooka 2013-07-14 github

@V10lator Ah, yeah, I thought that it wouldn't be a big deal if I waited a couple of weeks in between, devs usually complain (edit: or are demoralised) when there is someone nagging them every day or every few days. (Come on, seven months!)

edit: Or people saying "ur program is shit fix ur stuff bitch". Those don't help. /edit

I also wouldn't have sent the message in the first place if I saw their reply from last time. For some reason I didn't see it, or don't remember seeing it. I would have waited 3-6 more weeks.

CCheeseness 2013-07-15 github

@V10lator Raising visibility of the issue isn't a bad thing - from what I understand, none of the support staff work on the Linux client, so you don't need to worry too much about having resources stolen from this ^_^

Mmmstick 2013-07-16 github

I made a triple boot of Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu on my laptop here, just because I felt like it, and I'm noticing on Xubuntu that the bug does not exist.

BBenguin 2013-07-16 github

Are you sure? I use Xfce on arch and still get the problem.

Mmmstick 2013-07-16 github

Certainly, I copy/paste a lot in Steam. It works fine in Xubuntu 13.04.

MMrSchism 2013-07-16 github

It seems fixed on my Xubuntu (up-to-date) install.

BBenguin 2013-07-16 github

Just re-tested on my xfce/arch install, still broken there, so it's something specific to Xubuntu rather than (the bleeding-edge version of,) xfce, for sure.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-07-21 github

It appears that in Cinnamon it's fixed, with Steam Beta. I just tested it in chat with a friend, and it works well.

I also tested it in the Steam Community interface, the keyboard shortcuts are not working, but no bugs using the context menu. I'll report back if it breaks again at all.

At the time of writing, Steam reports (under Help > About Steam) the time of its building as "Jul 19 2013, at 10:22:35". The version number is truncated: "1374261093 / 13742610..." They look like Unix Timestamps.

WWeegee 2013-07-27 github

Okay, so this problem affects me on Arch Linux running GNOME 3.8, but not on my Laptop which runs on the current Alpha version of Ubuntu 13.10 with Unity.

?ghost 2013-07-31 github

Just to say that this is a problem with Kubuntu 12.10 (KDE 4.9.5) and has been since the beta (for me). System Info

BBurritoBazooka 2013-08-01 github

Looks like it's happening again for me. :frowning:

FFutureSuture 2013-08-31 github

This issue makes using the discussion boards via the Steam client a huge pain in the neck. Yes, it's still around.

MMrSchism 2013-09-09 github

Just updating this: for some reason, a recent non-Steam update broke this for me. Not sure which update, but something changed and now the issue occurs.

Llibcg 2013-09-12 github

Happening when pasting activation codes from Humble Bundle. Using an up-to-date Arch Linux, with GNOME 3.8.

Mmmstick 2013-09-12 github

I guess someone needs to locate the package causing the problem. It's
happening on every distro/DE I've tried.

On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 7:21 PM, Clément Guérin [email protected]:

Happening when pasting activation codes from Humble Bundle. Using an
up-to-date Arch Linux, with GNOME 3.8.


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/41#issuecomment-24286618
.

BBurritoBazooka 2013-09-12 github

What do you suggest? Shall each of us post a list of packages we have installed, and then we see what's in common, or what?

The length of time this is taking to get fixed probably means that it's a tough one for Valve, so I doubt we alone would be able to do much.

HHirato 2013-09-12 github

Complaints from the Unity camp are strangely absent, so I imagine non-Unity desktops are using a broken code path, why something like this even exists is pretty curious.

The code path we're all hitting is basically doing this:

void pasteinto(vector<char> &buf)
{
    if(!SDL_HasClipboardText()) return;

    //we paste our temporary buffer into the given buffer here.
    static vector<char> tmp;
    buf = tmp;

    //we then clear it and retrieve the data from the clipboard
    tmp.clear();
    char *cb = SDL_GetClipboardText();

    //which we then add to our temporary buffer
    char *p = cb;
    do { tmp.push_back(*p); } while(*p++);

    SDL_free(cb);
}

You can see it for yourself: copy anything, then paste it into steam once (it'll paste nothing this time). Then copy anything else and try and paste this into steam, you'll see it pastes what you wanted it to paste the previous time.
This is also why the Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-V dance gets around it.

?ghost 2013-09-12 github

Unity isn't free of this issue. I've always had this issue and I use unity.

KKiwii 2013-09-12 github

Just booted my old laptop to confirm this happens in Unity as well.

Ubuntu 13.04
Linux 3.8.0-30-generic x86_64
Unity 7.0.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1
(the current version in 13.04, not experimental despite "daily" in the version number)

Full system info as given by Steam

If anyone needs any info, just ask. I'm happy to provide it if it helps to fix this bug.

Mmmstick 2013-09-13 github

I'm using a custom Xfce session right now with Ubuntu 13.04 and kernel 3.10 and it is copying and pasting fine.

SStrykerraven 2013-09-14 github

I can confirm this still occurs on Arch w/ Gnome (latest).

Mmmstick 2013-09-14 github

It's occurring with me and my Xfce session right now. I haven't upgraded any packages or rebooted though.

MMrSchism 2013-09-16 github

Copy/paste on my Xubuntu (up-to-date) system is working perfectly fine.

Ccodygarver 2013-09-25 github

I think it happens to Mutter and Mutter-based window managers. 100% reproducible for me using Gala window manager.

Iiamedwin1 2013-09-27 github

i've been experiencing this on 64 bit arch w/ openbox for quite awhile now

MMeshachBlue 2013-10-06 github

Fresh install of 13.10 beta, and steam beta. This problem still occurs 95% of the time.

Eericwomer 2013-10-27 github
Ggdrewb-valve maintainer 2013-11-05 github

The 11/5 client beta should fix this.

MMeshachBlue 2013-11-12 github

Can confirm. Fixed.

Bboombatower 2013-11-13 github

Praise Gaben!

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