copy/paste problem

[Peter Flynn]

On 13/11/2019 14:25, Little Girl <littlergirl at gmail.com> wrote:
> rikona wrote:
> 
>> Recent problem which seems to be getting worse. Running Ubuntu
>> 16.04 updated. I have 2 'files' windows open, highlight some files
>> in #1, release all mouse buttons, click on the highlighted files,
>> hold down shift key, drag to #2 window - and nothing happens.
>> Repeat, repeat some more and finally works on perhaps try #6-10 -
>> finally moved the files. Getting to be a pain. 

I haven't seen this on a system where I use a mouse, but I have seen 
something very similar on several laptops running assorted flavours and 
derivatives of Ubuntu, all operated via touchpad, not mouse. The action 
is similar: highlight some text, move to another window, and middle-tap 
(or two-finger tap) to paste a copy. I believe this is standard X 
behaviour, where highlighting performs a copy without the need to 
explicitly click Copy. The behaviour is unpredictable: sometimes it 
pastes, sometimes it doesn't. Repeated clicks after a failure sometimes 
work; and sometimes suddenly produce multiple copies (the repeated 
clicks all suddenly having an effect). This is across multiple machines, 
so I am excluding hardware failure.

>> What might be going on and how can I restore the original move/copy
>> behavior?
> 
> Have you tried this with another mouse and gotten the same result? 

I shall plug a mouse into the laptops and try, thanks.

> I tend to keep a supply of new mice handy because the model I prefer
> tends to misbehave in two different ways when it's no good any more.

Very interesting. How long does a mouse last you?

> It either clicks more than I told it to or refuses to click when I 
> tell it to. The misbehavior is random and sporadic at first and 
> becomes more and more frequent as time goes by. It sounds like you 
> may be seeing some of that kind of misbehavior with your mouse.

This certainly describes my touchpads' behaviour, but it's constant: it 
neither improves nor deteriorates with time.

P