copy/paste problem

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

Peter Flynn wrote:
>Little Girl 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.

Interesting. I still might question whether it's hardware-related
since they all use touchpads. Maybe it's something in the touchpad
code that's causing it.

>> Have you tried this with another mouse and gotten the same
>> result?   
>
>I shall plug a mouse into the laptops and try, thanks.

I'd love to hear how that turns out. If the mouse works consistently
and the touchpads don't, then it will at least send you in a specific
direction and you can go in armed with that information when filling
out bug reports.

>> 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?

Several months. Some of them last over a year. Only two mice have
ever broken the two-year mark, though, and those were both brands
other than my usual go-to mouse. One of them (my work computer
mouse) has recently broken the five-year mark, which is simply
astonishing. I'm hard on my peripherals.

>> 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.

Then you have my sympathies. That behavior is maddening. The moment I
see it, I'm already tearing open the next mouse package. Also, I
thought I'd add that putting a new mouse into place always instantly
and completely solves the issue.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.