Copy Paste problem from Firefox, not sure where the problem lies

Discussions in English on using Fedora
#1

I have an occasional problem with copy and paste from Firefox. It’s occasional as a restart of Firefox solves it. Perhaps coincidentally I am unable to detach tabs with the mouse in the same scenario, requiring a restart of Firefox. These problems start at the same time, and the same restart of Firefox solves them for a while. So I’m thinking it’s either a Firefox problem, or more of a system/wayland problem.

When I copy text from Firefox into another app it simply doesn’t work, no pasting, not even previously copied text. For some such as VSCodium it freezes and completely crashes. Having installed a clipboard manager I can see that no new entry is added. If when VSCodium is frozen I copy text from a non-Firefox window it unfreezes and lets me paste the newly copied text.

I had no idea of anything until I noticed when pasting into Terminator this message. This comes up after a short freeze period.

bracketed-paste-magic:zle:47: not enough arguments for -U

I have no idea where this problem originates from, so don’t know which forums/projects to start reporting/asking about this. A challenge is that I can’t reproduce the issue directly, just after a short while of use I’ll notice I can’t copy text out and I can’t pull windows off (have to just shortcut v + w on tab right click).

This has persisted across many versions of Firefox and VSCodium (also affected VSCode and FOSS-VSCode). My current versions are:

➜  ~ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME=Fedora
VERSION="32.20200920.0 (Silverblue)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=32
VERSION_CODENAME=""
PLATFORM_ID="platform:f32"
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 32.20200920.0 (Silverblue)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:32"
HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-silverblue/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy"
VARIANT="Silverblue"
VARIANT_ID=silverblue
OSTREE_VERSION='32.20200920.0'
➜  ~ firefox -v
Mozilla Firefox 80.0.1
➜  ~ terminator -v
terminator 1.92
➜  ~ flatpak list | grep vscodium
VSCodium	com.vscodium.codium	1.49.0	stable	flathub	system
➜  ~
2 Likes
#2

Is this a Firefox problem?

#3

I honestly don’t know, perhaps, that’s what I’m asking. It appears to be isolated to Firefox, or is it a clipboard problem in Gnome?

I don’t know how that copy process is handled, that is my ask to help try narrow down where the problem is, and I then go to that project with a report description.

#4

When you copy from a .txt or a .doc or … do you see the same problem? If yes, look inrto the copy-process, if no it is Firefox.

#5

I’m experiencing the same issue with VS Codium and Firefox.

NAME=Fedora
VERSION="32 (Workstation Edition)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=32
VERSION_CODENAME=""
PLATFORM_ID="platform:f32"
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora 32 (Workstation Edition)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:32"
HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f32/system-administrators-guide/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=32
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy"
VARIANT="Workstation Edition"
VARIANT_ID=workstation

Packages versions:

  • Gnome Shell: gnome-shell-3.36.6-1.fc32.x86_64
  • Firefox: firefox-81.0-3.fc32.x86_64
  • VS Code: codium-1.49.2-1600994350.el7.x86_64
#6

I have the same problem on Arch linux using wayland and the firefox compiled for fedora (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fedora-firefox-wayland-bin/).
I can still detach tabs with the mouse though :thinking:. But trying to copy something for the browser to my terminal (alacritty) just makes the terminal freeze.

1 Like
#7

Experiencing the same issue.

Copy-pasting from Firefox to other program doesn’t work.

However, I’m able to copy-paste from Firefox to Firefox and from other programs into Firefox.

Dragging tabs out of the Firefox window doesn’t work either.

Fedora 32 + Wayland

2 Likes
#8

Also the same issue on Fedora 32, can’t copy from firefox and paste it outside firefox, neither dragging tabs out of firefox to create a new window.

#9

Hi, @Irocha did you update to the latest version of Firefox?
Open Terminal and do:
sudo dnf update --refresh
that will update Firefox (and more)

#10

Thanks @jpbn, yeap, in fact just a couple days ago did that and the update fixed the issue, forgot to answer in here. Sorry for that.

#11

I’m still experiencing this issue, even after updating to the latest Firefox version (82.0.3). When trying to paste something copied out of Firefox the app freezes (e.g. VS Code, Discord, etc.).

I also noticed another odd problem: When trying to paste something from Firefox into Google Chrome, Chrome doesn’t accept input anymore. It doesn’t freeze, as it’s still possible to create tabs for example, but I can’t type in Chrome anymore. This can be fixed by copying something from another app. As soon as I copy something out of VS Code or GNOME Software for example I can type again.

Is this a Firefox problem?

#12

Hi @yosomono, it could be caused by a mix of two clipboards. https://codeyarns.com/tech/2017-01-18-the-two-clipboards-in-linux.html.

1 Like
#13

I’m still experiencing this problem to this date. Any updates on this?

#14

I’ve seen an update of firefox-wayland mentioning a fix for clipboard, but I still have the same problem after some time of running Firefox. Restarting it helps.

[adding] I wonder if it is related to applications running in Wayland vs X compatibility layer.

#15

Hi,

Having the issue on Fedora 33 / Firefox 85.0.1.

It seems that opening a new firefox window trigger the problem.

#16

I have this on fedora silverblue. Just started happening today.

#17

I’ve been with same problem and fixed by disabling Wayland at /etc/gdm/custom.conf, uncommenting #WaylandEnable=false and reboot.

#18

There is a rpm package ‘firefox-wayland’ which is not installed by default. With this one I do not run into the copy and paste issues´.